Never Meant to Be
by pleasant-hell
Summary: A continuation of Before the Sun Goes Dark. What happens to the glee kids since their school is gone? Brittany and Santana stuggle with what happened to them, one of them more than the other, while Quinn and Rachel reluctantly bond at a deaf school.
1. Chapter 1

This is a continuation of the story Before the Sun Goes Dark. I thought that adding this to the story would change the tone of that story and I really liked the tone of the story so this is going to be it's own monster. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

Since there was little more than a mountainous heap where William McKinley High used to be school had been called off for the rest of the week while the teachers and administrators decided what to do with the misplaced students. They figured it out over the next three days and sent out letters to all the students telling them where they would temporarily be going to school.

"Jane Addams Academy?" Santana scoffed, "Don't you have to have a rap sheet to get in there?"

"The Deaf School?" Rachel squealed, "B-B-But no one can hear me sing."

"Lucky them," Quinn quipped. That was until she found out she was going to the same place.

Puck's mouth dropped open. "Not cool dude. I can't go to an all guys school. There's no girls there."

"Isn't Carmel High where Vocal Adrenaline is?" Mercedes asked Tina who was holding an identical letter.

Everyone had met in Brittany and Santana shared hospital room to discuss what was going on.

"So all the guys are going to the St. Luke's Boy's Academy," Rachel pointed to a group of pissed off guys…and Kurt. She then looked over at Mercedes and Tina, "Carmel High?"

They both nodded.

"Brittany and Santana are going to Jane Addams Academy," Rachel looked at the two who were in the same bed, sitting next to each other. Then she turned on her heel and looked at Quinn, "And we're going to Haverbrook School for the Deaf."

"This is the worst day ever," Brittany sighed. Then when Santana looked at her with a quirked eyebrow she added, "Except when the school fell down. That was pretty bad too."

"So we're all getting split up," Finn shrugged, "How long?"

"No one can hear me sing," Rachel sighed.

Everyone looked to Kurt for the obvious quip. He shook his head at them, "Too easy."

"How did they decide who went where?" Artie asked Mr. Shue who was standing in the back of the room by the door.

He put his hands in his pockets, "It was random. I tried to make sure that none of you were alone. The rest of the kids were spread out over town. I also tried to make sure," he glanced at Brittany and Santana, "That the ones of you that were the closest got paired together."

"What happened when you got to me and Rachel?" Quinn rolled her eyes, "Did you just give up?"

Mr. Schue just ignored Quinn and went on, "Principle Figgins is having portables moved in while they rebuild. Coach Sylvester hired the best construction company in the state. Of course that mean the gym and the Cheerio's locker room with be done first, but it also means the rest of the school will be back within a year."

"When do we get to use to portables?" Finn asked.

The teacher shrugged, "It depends on how fast they get here. Mr. Figgins has all the available ones in the area on the way, but that's only about seven or eight. We'll start calling people back to school as soon as we can. All your schedules are exactly like they are now at your new schools." He smiled, "Try to have fun guys. It's a new experience."

"Who gets called back first?" Mercedes crossed her arms.

Mr. Schue sighed, "Again since Sue is heavily into his project, she gets to decide who comes back first."

"Is they why we got put at this shitty school?" Santana asked, waving the paper in her hand, "Because we won't be there as long?"

"Jane Addams isn't shitty," Mr. Schue looked at Santana, "And no that's not why. I thought if anyone could handle it there, it was you and Brittany."

"Seriously?" Santana asked, "Just cause I'm half Puerto Rican doesn't mean I know how to make a shank."

Mr. Schue rolled his eyes, but couldn't blame her for being angry that she was going to Jane Addams, "It's a rough school so the students I sent in had to be solid, in themselves and their relationship with each other. I think you two our of everyone I've ever seen have the most solid relationship I've ever seen. Especially after what happened last week."

Brittany beamed and looked at Santana who was fighting a smile. The blonde took Santana's hand and rested her head on Santana's shoulder. Santana finally let out a smile.

"What about me?" Rachel started a diva fit. "A deaf school?"

After calming Rachel down and explaining that they'd have a translator most of the time, and that they're one of the highest rate academic school in the state, he added, "And you and Quinn will be together."

Rachel looked over at Quinn, waiting for a snarky remark, but none came out. Quinn was just staring blankly at the floor, eyes clouded over in thought.

"Well guys," Mr. Schue stood up straight, "I'm going to go see if there's a way to salvage some of the things from the glee room. Good luck."

He hugged them all and then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

"Brittany! Why are you wearing that?" Santana squealed when she met with the blonde in front of Jane Addams academy.

Brittany looked confused and glanced down at her Cheerios uniform.

"You can't wear that here." Santana explained, gesturing to her own jeans and purple top.

Brittany still looked confused, "Why not?"

Santana just shook her head and drug her back outside to her car, to get Brittany changed. She went through the clothes that were stowed away in the car and handed them to Brittany, guiding her into the backseat of the car. Once she was changed, Santana made sure to lock her car before leading Brittany inside.

Mr. Schue arranged for Ms. Hitchens to be the one to show the girls around because they were sort of familiar with her already. Santana knocked on the door and felt Brittany nervously take her hand. She looked back and let out a reassuring smile to the blonde, "It'll be okay. I promise."

"C'min," Ms. Hitchens called.

Santana opened the door and led the way in. Ms. Hitchens stood from her desk when the girls came in. She let out a kind smile, "Hey girls. I hope you made it through the metal detectors okay."

Santana nodded although she thought she was going to have to rip apart the officer that was checking Brittany with the metal detecting wand. It could have been her imagination, but the guy looked a little too interested in Brittany's body.

"Here are your schedules," she handed them each a piece of paper, "They're pretty much the same as your old ones except for we don't have cheerleading. Our squad got in a fight last year at the all city competition and the school board banned cheerleading for a year."

Santana remembered that. She started to run to see what was happening, but she and Brittany were 'getting ready' in the utility closet down the hall for good luck. Not that they needed it, but Brittany was superstitious about such things and who was Santana to argue.

"We tried to get you in all the same classes, but you two are going to have to go to different Art classes during sixth period. We have an overcrowding problem as it is. We wanted to help out you and your school more by taking in more students, but we just can't."

Santana looked at their schedules and sure enough they were going to be separated for one period. She didn't like it, but she couldn't help it.

"Do you two need anything or have any questions?" Ms. Hitchens asked.

"What about off campus lunch?" Santana asked.

Ms. Hitchens nodded, "But that may end soon. We've been having a problem with people going to lunch and not coming back." She paused, "Any thing else?"

Santana looked over at Brittany. The blonde looked back and shrugged.

"I wanted to invite you two to practice with out glee club," Ms. Hitchens offered, "I know you won't compete with us, but you're welcome to practice. Maybe we could teach you something and maybe you could teach us something."

Santana looked to Brittany. The blonde was cautiously excited. She wanted to be in glee, but she didn't want to betray her own glee club.

"You don't have to answer right now," Ms. Hitchens saw the silent conversation going on in front of her, "We practice during study hall, since it starting to get cold outside. It's the only way we can practice in a classroom without people complaining about the noise."

Santana nodded, "Thanks."

"If you two have any questions or problems today let me know," she replied.

The girls stood up and as soon as they left the room, Brittany's hand found Santana's. Santana gave it a gentle squeeze. She might not should have talked so much shit about this school. Of course she never thought she'd be going to this school.

Quinn giggled. She liked this school so far. It was quiet all the time and she knew where Rachel was at all times. Also, between periods she would walk up behind Rachel and yell, "Rachel Berry!" Rachel would jump and if Quinn was lucky she could drop her books. The last time she did that Rachel spilled a soda. Among the regular kids at the school, everyone just saw Rachel drop her things and assumed she was clumsy so they all stayed away from her around stairs and liquid.

As much fun as it was to scare Rachel all the time, she was the only person to talk to at the school and Quinn decided at lunch it was time to make nice. Well, sort of.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked, watching everyone file down the hallway. Of course no one could hear her. She just sighed and went to her locker. She was tired of being in a school where she didn't know what was going on without an interpreter.

"It's lunchtime."

The voice made Rachel jump and whirl around. She came face to face with Quinn. "Oh. Um, thanks." Rachel watched Quinn walked off for a few seconds wondering how she was fairing. Then Quinn turned around and met her gaze, "C'mon we're going to lunch." With that, she turned around and kept walking.

Rachel shoved her binder into the locker and closed it. She wasn't sure why she was so eager to follow Quinn. After a while day of classes where no one could hear her, lunch with Quinn didn't seems too horrible.

Quinn was already to her car when Rachel stepped out side. The blonde unlocked the car and got in, starting the ignition just as Rachel got there. Once Rachel was in the car, Quinn pulled out of the parking lot.

"Where are we going?" Rachel asked cautiously.

"Breadstix," Quinn stated.

When they got there, Quinn led the way inside and was about to tell the hostess they needed a table for two when she spotted Brittany and Santana sitting at booth. "Thank god. People who talk." Quinn bypassed the hostess and Rachel followed.

Brittany and Santana were sitting next to each other in the booth so Quinn and Rachel sat on the other side. Brittany beamed when she saw them, but Santana didn't look too happy.

"Hey," Quinn smiled at Brittany, "How's your new school?"

"It smells weird," Brittany answered, "And Santana almost got in a fight."

"Surprise. Surprise," Quinn smirked.

"Ephasia is a bitch. I kicked her ass in first grade," Santana retorted scooting a little closer to Brittany.

"Do you go anywhere without making an enemy?" Quinn asked playfully. She was in such a good mood now that she could talk to people who talked back.

Santana rolled her eyes and added, "We're on the honor roll."

"How?" Rachel sputtered, "You've only been there for half a day."

"We were there the whole time," Santana answered flatly. She picked up a breadstick and offered it to Brittany. The blonde smiled and took it breaking it in half and giving the other half to Santana.

"How's the deaf school?" Santana asked.

Quinn smirked and looked at Rachel, "It's not that bad."

"It's horrible," Rachel looked back at Quinn, "My interpreter is creepy and keeps looking at me weird. I can't ask questions without him. Everyone avoids me because they think I'm clumsy." She last part she added with a bit of venom at Quinn.

The blonde chuckled, "Okay I'll stop scaring you in the hallway."

They both turned their attention to the girls across the table. Santana was tracing a scar on Brittany's forearm. It seemed liked such a tender moment that Quinn and Rachel didn't want to interrupt. They knew that Brittany and Santana were having a hard time deal with what went down and how close both of them came to not existing anymore.

"I still can't believe it," Rachel whispered to Quinn.

Quinn just nodded. "Me either." She chanced a glance over at Brittany and Santana. Santana's face was nuzzled against Brittany cheek and their eyes were closed. Quinn sighed and looked down at the table. She wanted that. She wanted that kind of connection that could survive being crushed with tons of concrete and a two-story fall onto a pile of rubble. She wanted that silent beautiful way that they could communicate with the smallest touch. For as much shit as she gave Santana, Quinn was insanely jealous of what she had with Brittany.

"Quinn?" Rachel asked quietly, "Are you okay?"

Quinn bobbed her head up and down, "Yeah I'm fine."

Rachel gave Quinn a hopeful smile, "I'm sure the our school will be back to normal soon. On the way over here I saw Coach Sylvester with a bullhorn yelling at the construction workers."

"Coach said the school will be back to normal in a month," Santana interjected.

"See?" Rachel tried to make Quinn feel better about what she thought Quinn was sad about, "Everything will be back to normal soon so you better scare me in the hallway while you have the chance."

Quinn smiled a bit at Rachel and nodded, "Yeah. Watch out."

Rachel grinned back.

"So ladies," the waitress asked appearing at the end of the table, "What are we having this afternoon?"


	3. Chapter 3

The girls enjoyed a free lunch, once the manager realized who they were. He told them he was proud to have a hero like Brittany eating at his restaurant. Brittany looked at him like he was nuts and Santana beamed with pride.

Reluctantly, the girls parted ways and went back to school. Brittany and Santana had to head to their one different class of the day as soon as they got back.

"Where's your girlfriend?" a girl asked Santana as she sat down in her History class.

The answer came out of Santana's mouth before she even thought about it, "She's not my girlfriend."

"Whatever," the girl rolled her eyes and put a colorful box of markers on Santana's desk, "Can you give these to her? I'm cutting the rest of the day and I have to bolt after class."

Santana took the markers and put them in her backpack, nodding, "Yeah, okay."

"And my home girl has been asking about your blondie. If she's not your girlfriend then she's fair game right?" the girl didn't wait for an answer. She just turned around in her desk as the teacher started teaching.

The rest of class was a blur to Santana. She was deep in though about what the girl said. It was well known at McKinley High that Brittany belonged to Santana even if they weren't 'dating'. Here apparently Brittany was fair game. She was also thinking about how they ended up at the school. She almost lost her life and worse, she almost lost Brittany. She could still see the blonde laying unconscious, beaten and bruised on the hospital bed. She shook her head. It finally hit her.

The bell rang.

That stupid romance movie feeling took her over. She ran out of classroom and saw Brittany walking toward her. As soon as she was within arms reach, she pulled Brittany into her body, sending their lips crashing together in the middle of the hallway.

Surprised, Brittany dropped her backpack, but instinct brought her arm to wrap around Santana's neck. Santana's hands held onto Brittany's hips and held tight.

The blonde whimpered when Santana hit a particularly sore spot from her fall. Santana immediately pulled away and looked concerned.

"What's going on?" Brittany knew Santana only kissed her like that when something upset her and she wanted to make it feel better.

"I don't want to hide anymore. I want to touch you all the time and not care who sees. I want everyone to know you're mine," S looked around, "That's right bitches, she's mine so back the fuck off!"

Brittany laughed and threw her arms around Santana again. She'd been secretly wanted this for a long time.

As Quinn walked to her last class of the day, she heard singing in the hallway. It wasn't just any singing either. Rachel was standing at her locker quietly singing while looking through her binder.

Quinn couldn't help, but sing along.

_Highway run _

_Into the midnight sun_

_The wheels go round and round_

_You're on my mind_

_Restless hearts_

_Sleep alone to night_

_Sending all my love along the wire_

_They say that the road ain't no place to start a family_

_Right down the line it's been you and me_

_And loving a music man _

_Ain't always what it's supposed to be_

_Oh girl_

_You stand by me_

_I'm forever yours_

_Faithfully_

Rachel smiled when she heard Quinn singing along, but didn't turn around. She knew no one else could hear them and she was focused on the harmony of their voices. She wondered why no one ever thought to put them together before. She knew her voice had a power behind it. A certain Broadway quality she'd been cultivating since birth, but Quinn's voice wasn't powerful. Her voice was soft and intimate. It was sweet at times and how they sang together caused Rachel to rethink the content of her regionals set list power point presentation.

When they finished singing, Rachel slowly turned around, "That was beautiful Quinn. Maybe we should sing together more often."

Quinn smiled back, but it faded to a scowl, "You wish." Quinn turned on her heel and stomped off, leaving a very confused Rachel in her wake.

"We need a song for a female group to sing." Ms. Hitchens walked in front of the group of glee girls at the Jane Addams Academy. Santana was begrudgingly sitting next to Brittany at one of the picnic tables in the courtyard.

"The Spice Girls," Brittany stated.

Ms. Hitchens asked Santana, "Is she serious?"

Santana nodded earnestly. Brittany rarely wasn't serious when speaking. Her last attempt at sarcasm caused her to be evaluated by Ms. Pillsbury and her locker to be searched for a bird.

Before anyone knew it, Brittany went over to the CD player sitting on a nearby trashcan and inserted a CD. She walked up to the portable microphone stand.

The music started and Santana sat rigid and mortified. Brittany just smiled and started singing.

Say you'll be there  
I'm giving you everything all that joy  
Can bring this I swear

A few of the other girls looked at her like she was insane. The other ones were mouthing the words as she sang. Brittany added a little dance step in and then took the microphone off of the stand and started walking toward the girls.

Last time that we had this conversation  
I decided we should be friends  
Yeah  
But now we're going round in circles  
Tell me will this deja vu never end? Oh

Brittany sang to the girls and a few of them clapped along with the song while Brittany danced and sang. One of the girls that had a solo during the invitational picked up a spare microphone and took over.

Now you tell me that you've fallen in love  
well I never ever thought that would be  
This time you gotta take it easy  
throwing far too much emotions at me

Brittany grinned and joined the girl in singing the next line. They both did a little dance then pulled some other girls off the tables to dance with them. Soon Santana was the only one left sitting down.

But any fool can see they're falling,  
I gotta make you understand

I'm giving you everything all that joy can bring this I swear  
(I give you everything)  
And all that I want from you is a promise you will be there  
Say you will be there (Say you will be there)  
Won't you sing it with me

Santana ducked her head when she saw Brittany look at her. She knew what her girlfriend was up to and she was trying to avoid it. However she couldn't ignore Brittany taking her hand and pulling up onto her feet. When the blonde shoved a microphone Santana couldn't help, but sing.

If you, put two and two together  
you will see what our friendship is for (Oh)  
If you can't work this equation then  
I guess I'll have to show you the door  
There is no need to say you love me,  
It would be better left unsaid

Brittany worked on the choreography with the background singers, but someone handed her a microphone and urged her forward. She was standing next to Santana and she beamed. They'd been singing Spice Girls songs since they discovered Quinn's older sister's CD collection when they were little. And they had this song down.

Brittany sang the verse and Santana powered through the echoes and it sounded amazing.

I'm giving you everything (I m giving you everything)  
all that joy (all that joy can bring) can bring this I swear (yes I swear)  
and all that I want from you (all that I want from you) is a promise  
(I want you to promise you'll)  
you will be there (always be there)

A cheer rose from all the girls and Ms. Hitchens just stood shaking her head about how these two outsiders had brought the group together and even got them to sing a ten year old song without a fight.

Rachel and Quinn weren't having as much luck with their interim glee club. Rachel was upset that no one could appreciate her vocal abilities except Quinn who seemed to be angrily stewing in the corner. Soon Quinn's glares got too much for her and Rachel stopped in the middle of her song, "Why do you hate me? We were getting along. What did I do to you?"

Quinn rolled her eyes, "Nothing."

"Then why do you hate me?" Rachel demanded.

The blonde stood up and walked out of the meeting. She walked out because she didn't have an answer for Rachel. She just knew that she was supposed to hate Rachel and having this time alone with her made her realize that she didn't actually hate Rachel. She actually kinda liked her and that was _not_ good at all.

Rachel let out a frustrated shutter and stalked out. The other kids just looked at each other and shook their heads, signing to each other how the New Directions kids are still crazy.


	4. Chapter 4

As the week went on, Santana found that with the help of Brittany, she could rule this school. Their relationship had shot them to the top of the Jane Addams social pyramid. Santana was quiet and mysterious while Brittany was bubbly and sweet. They all liked one of them and that catapulted them to the top.

Santana sat with Brittany at the lunch table that became theirs. Santana sighed, "I can't wait to go back to McKinley."

"Why?" Brittany asked.

"No one fears me here," Santana sighed. "Everyone waves at me and says hi. No one cowers in my wake."

The blonde smiled at Santana, knowing that fear was one of the things that Santana finds important in life. "Well the school should be back to normal soon. I saw the guys working on it last night."

"What?" Santana picked up a french fry off of Brittany's plate.

"Finn, Artie, Puck, Kurt, Mike, and Sam were all working on the school last night," Brittany explained, "They had shovels and stuff."

Santana looked thoughtful, before offering some of her soda to Brittany, "Maybe we should go see if they're doing that tonight."

Brittany nodded, "But I have to leave at eight. The mayor or something wants to give me a medal or something." She picked up the soda.

"The what?" Santana asked, completely thrown off guard.

"The mayor?" Brittany offered, wondering why Santana was surprised.

The bell rang, signaling time for study hall. Rachel heaved herself out of her chair. At this point, she was so tired of this school she was thinking of running off to Broadway early just to get out of it. She picked up her books and made her way to the library.

Once seated in the library, she opened her book and started to do her math homework. However a block in her brain wasn't permitting any sort of mathematical functions at all. So she rested her chin in her hand and sighed. She scanned the library for anything remotely interesting to look at. She got more than she bargained for when her eyes fell on Quinn, who was lazily looking back at her.

Rachel quickly averted her eyes and pretended to be engrossed in her homework.

"Good try Berry," Quinn called across the library.

"Shhh," Rachel frowned and looked at Quinn, "We're in the library."

"At a deaf school," Quinn stood up and walked over to Rachel. She sat down in a chair across from Rachel.

"It's still a library," Rachel huffed and picked up her pen to start working again.

Quinn was quiet and watched Rachel do her work. She was trying to gauge her reaction to the smaller girl. However her study was making Rachel increasingly uncomfortable.

"What do you want?" Rachel finally asked a little nervously.

Quinn shrugged, "Do you have the notes for history? The interpreter's voice kinda put me to sleep."

Rachel nodded and pulled out her notebook. She scanned through a few pages before ripping out a couple pages and handing them to Quinn.

"Thanks," Quinn said quietly, her eyes lingering on Rachel.

Rachel looked back up at her, "Are you okay?"

The blonde sighed, "I'm just tired. Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?"

"I don't get it," Rachel dropped her pen and asked, "You act like you hate me and then you ask me to go with you."

"I didn't ask you to go out with me," Quinn quickly added.

Rachel rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean."

The blonde was clearly flustered. She just turned around, flipping her ponytail behind her head, "Whatever, I'll just stop being nice to you."

The shorter girl let her head fall onto her notes with a thud. Quinn was so confusing all the time.

When school was out, Rachel walked outside to start her journey home. The school wasn't that far from her house and she liked to walk. It gave her time to think about everything. However before she stepped off of school grounds, Quinn's car pulled to a stop next to her.

The blonde rolled down the window and called, "Get in. We're having a glee meeting."

What Quinn said came out in the form of an order and Rachel hesitated, but got into Quinn's car anyway.

"Where are we having the meeting?" Rachel finally asked after a few seconds of silence.

Quinn didn't answer. She just pulled to a stop, shut off the car and got out before Rachel could unbuckle her seatbelt. Rachel finally looked around and saw that they were at the remains of their old school.

She scurried after Quinn who was walking toward the part of the school that was being salvaged, "Quinn do you think we should-"

Rachel stopped her thought when she stepped into the construction site and found the rest of the glee clubbers. They were all in various stages of moving debris out of the pile and into a dumpster.

"What's going on?" Rachel asked.

Finn smiled when he saw her, "We decided that it would go faster if there were people working all the time."

"Coach Sylvester has people working from eight to five and she's about to add another crew, but until then," Puck explained, shoveling dirt into a wheel barrow "Us guys have been working out here after school."

"How do you know you're not messing it up?" Rachel asked.

"My dad is the contractor," Artie explained, as he used his wheelchair to carry a section of a large beam to Mike and Finn who picked it up and threw it in the dumpster, "He always makes his schedules the day before. I take pictures of them with my phone and we all start on the project before the crew even gets here."

"How long have you guys been doing this?" Quinn asked, picking up some gloves and sliding them on.

"We've been doing it for a bout a week," Puck answered, "But Brittany and Santana just started today."

"We would have helped earlier if you guys would have told us about it," Santana stated with a bit of an attitude. She and Brittany were tossing smaller pieces of concrete into buckets.

Rachel finally got moving and started working with Quinn, throwing the contents of what was left of people's lockers into boxes to throw away.

"So B," Quinn looked over her should at Brittany and Santana who had joined them, "I read that you're going to get a medal today from the mayor."

Brittany shrugged, "Yeah I guess." She wiped her hands on her jeans, which were covered in construction dusk, "I don't really want to go though. I'd rather stay here and help you guys."

"We should all go watch," Quinn offered, "You are a hero after all."

"I don't think so," Brittany sighed and looked at Santana who had stopped what she was doing to offer an adoring smile.

"I think so," Santana added and placed a gentle kiss on Brittany's cheek.

The blonde blushed slightly and let out a shy grin.

"I wanna go," Puck interjected, "You totally deserve it."

They all continued working, each doing as much as they could to get the school back in shape so they could return to where they belonged. Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel saw a news van stop behind Quinn's car. "Uh oh."

Quinn looked to where they van was and hissed, "Crap. We're so busted."

They all stopped and grouped together near the entrance as a man with a camera and a woman with a microphone walked over to them.

"Are you all students here?" the woman asked.

No one answered until Puck said, "Why?"

She smiled hopefully, "We saw you working and if you are students then it would be a great fluff piece." She scanned the group and her eyes widened when she saw Brittany. "Brittany Pierce?"

Brittany looked scared and then turned to Santana for direction. Her girlfriend wasn't much help though, only able to conjure up enough thought to take her hand and give it a gentle squeeze.

The reporter looked at Santana and smiled fully, obviously elated, "This is perfect. Santana Lopez is here too."

"What do you want with us?" Santana finally asked.

"We're going to do a story on you two," The reporter straightened her hair.

A few minutes later everyone was standing around the front of the construction site. Artie was a little nervous because his dad watched the news and would know what he'd been up to after school.

"….Our every own hometown, high school hero Brittany Pierce is here, where her school once stood, helping to rebuild it," the reporter told the camera. "She's joined by the girl who's life she saved, Santana Lopez and their friends." She looked at Brittany, "And I understand you're going to receive a medal of accomplishment from the mayor this evening."

With the microphone shoved in her face, Brittany shrugged. "Yeah."

The reported waited for more of an answer, but Brittany just stared at the microphone. So she urged, "How does that make you feel?"

"I don't really want to go. I want to stay here and help," Brittany replied honestly.

The reporter turned back to the camera with a smile, "What a brave young woman and a shining example to the community."

"Hey guys," Puck said after the reporter left, "After they give Brit the medal I'm having a party at my house in her honor." He smirked, "B, you get the first chance to get with the Puckasaurus."

"Keep your hands and your Puckasaurus away from my girlfriend," Santana rolled her eyes.

Everyone stopped dead and turned to stare at her.

"What?" Santana asked when she saw everyone looking at her.

"You said the 'g' word," Quinn told her.

"So what?" she crossed her arms.

Quinn went back to doing her work, "I'm just saying…it's about damn time."

After the brief medal ceremony, they all went back to Puck's house with a couple dozen of his closest friends.

"That is so cool," Finn examined the medal that Brittany was letting him wear, "I can't believe the governor was there."

Brittany was pretty disinterested in the whole ceremony. In fact it was so short because she didn't have a speech prepared and in the time they allotted her to speak all she said was 'Thanks' before she left.

"Shots!" Puck called from the kitchen and started handing out blue plastic cups. Santana found her way to Brittany with two cups and handed one over. Puck stood on the table in the middle of the living room, "This is a toast to Brittany who is the most badass chick ever."

There was a round of cheers before everyone downed their drinks.

Santana took Brittany's empty cup and leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Puck has a hot tub out back."

Brittany grinned and followed Santana out the back door to the hot tub. There was a roof over it and door that would slide shut on every side. They stripped to their underwear and climbed in, their lips crashing together as soon as the door slid shut.

Rachel had had way too much to drink she decided. As she was examining the ingredients of the box of cookies she was nibbling on, she felt two hands gently rest on her hips. She panicked for a second before the smell of Quinn's perfume wafted around her.

She inhaled sharply when Quinn leaned into her, pressing her into the counter in front of her. She could feel an intense heat radiating from the girl behind her as well as Quinn's hands get a more firm grip on her hips.

"Why do you keep staring at me?" Quinn asked, her breath caressing Rachel's skin, sending chills up her spine.

Rachel closed her eyes. She could smell the faint alcohol on Quinn's breath and now that she was thinking about it, Quinn's weight was shifting frequently. In all likelihood Quinn was just as, if not more drunk than she was. "I, um…" Rachel tried to think of a good reason why she'd been watching Quinn all day and night. When she couldn't think of anything, she turned around in Quinn's arms.

Quinn finally realized how close she was to Rachel and moved back a bit. Her hands were still on Rachel's hips and they were still a breath apart, but she was backed up enough to see Rachel's face.

"I think…I think I have a crush on you," Rachel confessed. She knew she definitely wasn't as drunk as Quinn and that Quinn probably wouldn't remember this conversation tomorrow. She also knew that if Quinn did happen to remember it, Rachel could blame it on being drunk and mixing up her words.

However, Rachel didn't expect Quinn to lean forward and press their lips together. She did manage to get her wits about her and manage to kiss back. She felt Quinn deepen the kiss and she felt her back being ground into the kitchen counter. It was starting to hurt, but she'd been imagining what it may be like to actually kiss Quinn. Now that she was doing it, she wasn't going to stop just because the small of her back was hurting.

And just as quickly as it started, it was over. Quinn pulled away without any warning and ran out of the kitchen. Rachel thought about going after her, but knew it was useless. There were a lot of people out there and most of them didn't acknowledge her existence so getting past them would be near impossible. She just sat down on the floor and stared across the kitchen, wondering what the hell was going on.


	5. Chapter 5

At three a.m. Monday morning Santana's phone rang. She pushed herself up with her forearms and moved the mess of hair out of her face before blindly groping across her nightstand for her phone. After trying to answer her iPod for a few seconds she managed to get her phone. "Hello?"

Sniffling was all the came across the other end of the line. She was suddenly more awake. She knew who was calling her this late…or early. She sat up on her bed, dragging half of her blankets to her closet as they helplessly clung to her body before dropping with a quiet whoosh. She pulled on her Cheerio jacket and slid her shoes on.

As she grabbed her purse off of the doorknob, she added, "I'll be right there babe."

"Thanks," Brittany choked out and the line went dead.

It wasn't two minutes later that Santana was crawling into bed next to Brittany. She probably broke every speed limit en route and parked crooked on the street, but none of that mattered. What did was that Brittany needed her.

Brittany's parents had given her a key to the house because she was the only one that could calm Brittany down when she was having nightmares. They'd been getting less and less frequent, but when they came, they came with a vicious strength.

She pulled the weeping blonde to her and held her tightly against her body. "It's okay. I'm okay. You're okay."

"I-I," Brittany whispered into Santana's neck, "I had another nightmare."

Santana kissed her sweetly on the lips, "I know. But it's okay." She felt Brittany's hand ball up the back of her shirt as she clung to Santana, her savior from the nightmares.

"I love you San," Brittany mumbled as sleep threatened to overtake her.

Santana stroked her hair, "I love you too B."

Later in the morning, Brittany's mom came in to wake Brittany up. She opened her mouth, but when she saw Santana protectively wrapped around Brittany, she closed it again. It saddened her to think that Brittany was having nightmares again and that she couldn't do much about it. But she was glad that there was someone who could and more importantly would do something about it. She closed the door again, deciding to let them sleep for a little longer.

Rachel hadn't seen Quinn the rest of the weekend and her drunken kiss with Quinn had been the only thing on her mind. To the point that she got to school early just to find Quinn and ask her about it. After searching the school high and low, she finally found the blonde sitting at a study table in the library. She was wearing a flower speckled dress with a red cardigan and matching headband.

"Why did you kiss me at the party?" Rachel asked quietly without waiting for Quinn to acknowledge her.

Quinn looked up from her book and shook her head, "I don't know what you're talking about. How drunk were you?"

"Not as drunk as you," Rachel answered in an annoyed stage whisper, "You kissed me in the kitchen."

"Wow you were not only drunk, but delusional," Quinn rolled her eyes.

Rachel frowned, "I am not delusional."

"Maybe it was Brittany."

"It was you!" Rachel stamped her foot.

Quinn shook her head and looked back down at her book, mumbling something about how Rachel lost it.

The tiny brunette turned on her heel and stomped out of the library, not bothering to contain her frustrated huff.

Quinn just looked after her and let out a heavy sigh, dropping her head onto the book, "I'm so screwed."

Quinn decided that as adorable that Rachel was when she was storming out and yes she actually did miss in glee where Rachel would stomp and angry stage whispers, that things needed to go back to how they were before. Things needed to be normal so she could be normal. So she could not have a crush on Rachel Berry and so she could find a cute football player at McKinley to date. At this point she was getting so desperate to not think about Rachel, she would start dating one of those creepy theatre guys.

So a few periods later, as Quinn walked past Rachel at her locker she used a fun new app she'd installed on her phone. An air horn sounded through the hallway and Rachel dropped her books. The shorter girl had had enough. She was having a shitty day and she had a shitty migraine and a shitty test, plus her bra was digging into her ribs to top it all off. She left her books on the ground and her locker open, stalking after the blonde girl. She grabbed Quinn's arm and whirled the girl around.

Quinn nearly went cross-eyed when Rachel pointed her finger in her face and angrily said, "I don't know what I did to you or why you hate me and I don't understand this come here-go away thing you're putting me through. You kissed me and you won't admit it and now you're back to where we were at the beginning of sophomore year. I've had enough. I'm asking you politely to limit our interaction to the New Directions glee club." She put her hand down and quieted considerably, "I thought we were actually developing something...anything. When you grow up, maybe we can be friends."

With that she walked back to her locker, gathered her books and slammed her locker as she walked off to her class.

Quinn just stood at the end of the hallway with her mouth slightly open, watching her pivot around the corner without so much as a look back.

"So guys," Ephasia walked over to Brittany, Santana, and the rest of what had become their posse who were hanging out on the courtyard sitting on and around some picnic tables. "Thoughts on lunch?"

"San," Brittany weakly looked at Santana and leaned into her, "Can we go to our school? I just wanna…see it."

Santana nodded in understanding. She looked to the other girls, "We're going to go drive by McKinley today. B's kinda…" She trailed off as knowing nodded swept the group. They could all see how down Brittany was today and how tired she looked.

On the way out to the car, Brittany looked up at the sky as Santana guided her to the car. When they got to McKinley, Santana pulled to a stop across the street. They were both surprised to see four portable classrooms set out in the field behind the rubble of the school. Coach Sylvester was standing next to one of them, yelling at men through the megaphone as they moved desks inside.

Brittany and Santana leaned against Santana's car just watching for a little while until Coach Sylvester yelled at them through the megaphone. "Pierce, Lopez. Front and center."

They both trotted over, too tired to run, but too scared to walk. When they got to her Sue yelled at a rather large man to start lifting more than her grandma before she turned to the two, "Spread the word. The Cheerios are coming back, Monday of next week. The football players are coming back Wednesday. And I'll decide who comes back after that."

"Yes Coach," Santana nodded obediently.

Coach Sylvester then surveyed Brittany. "I am very impressed with your valor Brittany. I haven't see bravery such as yours since my time at the POW camps in North Korea. The other girls look up to you now. So I'm making you a co-captain with Santana."

Brittany nervously looked at Santana who usually responded with complete anger and animosity toward any threat to her power, but instead and smiled back. She was proud of Brittany and would be fore the rest of forever.

Once they'd listened to Coach Sylvester plans and complaints, they got back in the car and left. Brittany sent a mass text to the Cheerios telling them that normal school was back on Monday.

"Thanks San," Brittany looked up from her phone as she tried to answer about seven texts before another seven would pop up.

"For what?" Santana pulled to a stop at a stop sign and looked over at the blonde.

Brittany looked earnestly at her, "For coming to my house this morning."

"Babe, I will be there whenever you need me no matter what," Santana smiled and sweetly kissed her.

Brittany nodded and laid her head back on the headrest, "Thanks." She paused for a moment, "Can you take me home? I don't feel good."

Santana frowned, "Of course." She surveyed Brittany until the car behind them honked. Santana started driving again.

"Are you going to be okay alone?" Santana asked after she had tucked Brittany into her bed. "I can stay if you want."

Brittany smiled as Santana's fingertips danced across her cheek and then through her hair, "You need to go to class."

"Well, need is such a definitive word…" Santana smirked.

The blonde chuckled, but stayed hugging in her blanket around her, "You should go."

"I know," Santana dipped down and kissed her girlfriend. "I love you and I hope you feel better."

Brittany nodded into her pillow, her eyes already sliding closed, "Thanks."

Santana walked out of the room, not quite closing the door all the way as she left.


	6. Chapter 6

Quinn got Brittany's text as she sat alone in the library, listening to music on the computers and reading. She wasn't sure how she felt about going back on Monday. She needed to get away from Rachel as soon as possible, but at the same time no time spent with the tiny diva would ever be enough.

Finally she decided to not even think about it. She wasn't going to think about anything. She was just going to get through the rest of the week in one piece without any trouble. She was going to follow Rachel's pointed ordered.

The bell rang making her jump out of her thoughts and almost out of her chair. She quickly gathered her things and scrambled to get to her next class.

Quinn strolled down the hall. A few of the students had taken to her during the classes and they'd pass notes. Some of them smiled at her and others waved. She'd smile and nod back, making her way to her class. She may actually miss this school. There were perks to being one of the only two hearing people at the school. Most of the time when she'd make a snarky remark no one would hear it so she'd have time to think about what she was going to say or write.

As she was navigating the crowd, she spotted Rachel walking down the hallway. She had her books pressed to her chest and her head down. She looked so sad that it stopped Quinn in her tracks. She swallowed hard and kicked at the ground. She felt bad. She had sort of made Rachel an outcast at this school. She made Rachel spaz at random times and made other students laugh at her when they weren't busy avoiding her.

Quinn lowered her head as she passed Rachel, keeping he eyes trained on the ground. She wanted to respect Rachel's wishes and not make contact with her in any way. When she got to her class, she chanced a glance behind her and saw Rachel looking back at her. The shorter girl's face would have been unreadable if it wasn't for the defeat seeping out of her eyes. The blonde dropped her gaze and ducked into her classroom.

Santana tapped her pen on the desk. Her class was almost over and she had no idea what the teacher had said. She just stared hard at the desk wondering if Brittany was okay. Finally she raised her hand. Her teacher sighed. Most of Santana's hand raises were just to let out a sassy quip that made the teacher look stupid or to ask if she and Brittany could go to the bathroom.

"Santana?"

"I have a headache. Can I go to the nurse?" Santana asked in the weakest voice she could manage.

The teacher nodded, happy that Santana didn't want to be a disruption this time. Santana slung her purse over her shoulder and walked out of the room, b-lining to her car.

Quinn sat in her class, her thoughts on the girl one seat over and three seats up. She wondered what it was like to not have friends. Quinn always had friends albiet they weren't the best friends. Some were backstabbing and willing to turn on her on a whim but she still had people to talk to and some of which would stand up for her.

Quinn scribbled down on a piece of paper and handed it to the guy that sat behind her. His name was Kevin. He and Quinn bonded over complete confusion over the Canterbury Tales. He read the note and wrote back. Setting it on Quinn's shoulder when he was done. Quinn smiled and removed it from her shoulder. She unfolded it and read. "She's weird and her clothes are..."

Okay, Kevin had her there. When asking what he thought about Rachel, Quinn had to know her clothes would come up.

Quinn explained that Rachel wasn't really all that weird if you got past some of her quirks and that she had been scaring Rachel in the hallway. A few seconds after she handed the note back, Kevin's laughter filled the room. Of course the only people who could hear him were the interpreter, who could care less and continued reading his book, Quinn and Rachel.

Rachel turned around to see what was happening and Quinn couldn't help but smile a bit. She started at her notes and offered an explanation. "This Beowulf guy is hilarious."

Rachel just shook her head and turned back in the seat. The note passing and Quinn's overt lie convinced Rachel that she was the butt of a joke.

Quinn got the note back and read: You're horrible :) My friend thinks that she's having seizures.

Quinn didn't know how to explain why. She knew she knew why, she just didn't want to believe it. So she told him that she was feeling bad about it and Rachel was lonely and sad at this school. Maybe Rachel could go to lunch with them, but that she also promised not to talk to her after Rachel yelled at her.

"I'll ask her," was the reply.

He wrote a separate note and signed the girl next to him. Quinn had learned enough to know that she was describing Rachel by the bunny sweater she was wearing. The girl nodded and stood. She walked to the trash to throw away something before subtly dropping the note on Rachel's desk on return trip.

Quinn watched as Rachel opened it. When Rachel looked back at Kevin, he smiled and waved. Quinn stared at her desk. She was sure if Rachel knew that it was her idea, she wouldn't go.

Rachel managed to get the note back to him. He read it and then waiting until Rachel wasn't looking before handing it to Quinn. It read "I'd love to"

Rachel was reluctant to go when she learned that Quinn was going, but Kevin let out a charming smiled and wrote on his hand, "Please come with us."

Rachel acquiesced. They all walked to a nearby diner. Kevin, Rachel, Quinn, and one of Kevin's friends all sat at a table. Quinn somehow got stuck across from Rachel, but Rachel didn't protest.

Kevin signed and the boy next to him along with Quinn laughed. Rachel, who apparently wasn't fairing as well as Quinn in getting over the language barrier.

Kevin tapped Rachel on the shoulder and signed to her.

Quinn quietly translated, "He wants to know where you want to go to college."

"Um, Julliard," Rachel nodded. Kevin smiled his eyes on her lips, reading them.

"Singer, dancer, or actress?" Quinn translated.

The brunette glanced at Quinn before looking back at Kevin, "All three."

"That's cool. I don't really see much theatre, but I read a book about the history of silent films," Quinn explained.

Rachel smiled, "Do you like silent films?"

Kevin and Quinn laughed as she relayed, "They're all silent to me."

As her eyes met Quinn's, Rachel laughed. They shared a laugh. When Quinn realized this, she looked away.

After they ordered and got their food, Kevin's friend engaged him in a lively yet silent conversation. They kept glancing at Quinn and Rachel.

Kevin signed to Quinn who shook her head. She signed back slowly trying to remember the right words. The frown on her face was evident and she shook her head as she signed back.

Kevin shrugged to his friend that looked slightly crestfallen. He then tapped Rachel on the shoulder. She looked up from her food and he signed with a nervous smile on his face.

Quinn cleared her throat and said, "Can I take you out tonight? I'll bring a dry-erase board."

Rachel looked questioningly at Quinn and then Kevin and then back to Quinn. Her eyes narrowed, "Didn't he just ask you out and you said no?"

The blonde shook her head, "No." She gestured to the boy next to Kevin, "He did."

Rachel's eyes flickered to the boy before asking, "Why aren't you going to go out with him?"

That question caught Quinn off guard. She wasn't really sure what to say. The blonde bit her lip, "I'm...going to try to...fix me before I...drag anyone else down with me."

The brunette nodded slowly. She let out a small smile, "I'm proud of you Quinn."

Quinn couldn't contain a smile. She wished she didn't know why Rachel's opinion of her mattered so much. She sighed heavily and added, "Thanks."

The singer looked over at Kevin with a sweet smile. She was flattered. After all Kevin was cute, but she always imagined someone hearing her voice from afar and falling in love with her without ever seeing her.

She then glanced back across the table where Quinn had pushed her food away and had her arms crossed. And there was Quinn. She still had this annoying little (huge) crush on Quinn. She was a little torn, but she turned to Kevin. She carefully annunciated, "I'm very flattered. I would love to go out with you tonight, but only if we can start as friends?"

Kevin nodded with a smile on his face. Quinn begrudgingly translated what he was saying, "There's playing The Cabinet of Doctor...Cali...gari" Quinn was making faces as Kevin spelled the film's name. "Caligari?" Quinn finally waved it off, "They're playing some movie at the Lime revival theatre at eight."

Rachel smiled a perfect smile. She took a piece of paper out of her purse and wrote down her address and phone number, "Here's my address."

Kevin grinned and hugged Rachel. He signed and Quinn voiced it in an obligatory voice, "I promise we won't need a translator for too long." The blonde stood up, "We need to get back."

Rachel nodded in agreement and got up from the table. She went to pay but found that Quinn was gesturing to the whole table at the cash register. When Quinn walked back over she smiled at the Cheerio. She shyly looked at her shoes and said, "Thanks Quinn."

Quinn nodded, mirroring the shy smile. Maybe she was trying to impress Rachel with her generosity and maybe she was jealous as hell that Rachel was going out with Kevin even though it was as friends. And maybe she was trying to fix herself so that she wouldn't hurt Rachel anymore. And maybe she just pulled that fixing herself shit out of her ass because she didn't want to tell Rachel that she didn't like anyone but her at the moment. But it did give her an idea. She had exactly one week before switching schools and she was going to be the most charitable, sweet person on the planet while she still had Rachel to herself.

Brittany slowly woke up from her nap. She certainly felt better than before. There were no nightmares to interrupt her sleep this time. She rolled over in her bed and looked up. As her eyes drifted to the window so maybe she could tell what time it was, she saw that her TV was on. No only was her TV on, but she could see the top of a brunette covered head peeking out from the top.

"San," Brittany smiled sleepily.

Santana turned around and smiled at the blonde. "Hey babe." She stood up and crawled onto the bed. Santana laid down next to Brittany and ran her fingers through the long blonde locks, "How do you feel?"

"Better," Brittany smiled and draped her arm over Santana pulling her closer. "Why didn't you sit on the bed?"

"I didn't want to wake you up," Santana kissed Brittany softly. She rested her forehead on the blonde's, "Are you sure you feel better?"

"Mhmm," Brittany closed her eyes as Santana kiss her forehead, "Love you."

"I love you too," Santana said, still not sure that Brittany was really okay. There was something in the blue eyes that was making Santana suspicious. She kissed Brittany's forehead again and slid her arms around the dancer.


	7. Chapter 7

"Attention fellow glee clubbers," Rachel announced looking over them as they all sat in her living room. She'd gathered them all because her dads were going to be out of town at a convention in Cleveland and she wanted the glee club to reseal their bond. If they all got back together and they had lost their cohesiveness it would be devastating. Plus, she didn't want to be alone. She was a little frightened in the huge house by herself. She hoped that someone would want to spend the night with her when they found out she was alone. Someone very specific.

Rachel clasped her hands in front of herself, "I just wanted us all to get together so we could spend some quality glee time. We haven't had a meeting that didn't involve construction work in weeks."

"So your dads are gone?" Puck asked from the couch, his arm on the back of the couch behind Brittany.

Rachel nodded.

"When are they going to be back?" he asked.

"Friday," Rachel raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Because," Puck stood up and pulled Brittany with him, "We're going to get this party started." Puck looked around the room starting to give out orders, "Crips, music." Artie nodded and got out his iPod, rolling over to Rachel's dads' music system. "Sextana, curtains." After a quick glare at him for no only telling her what to do, but dragging Brittany off with him, she went to the windows to shut the curtains. "Q, lights." Puck pulled Brittany into the kitchen, "We'll get the booze."

Rachel knew that she should stop this. She should tell Puck no she wasn't going to have a party. But this meant that no one was leaving for a long time and she wouldn't be alone. Plus Quinn looked kind of excited and she wasn't mad at her anymore. She had stopped being mad at Quinn after she yelled at her and saw the regret on the blonde's face.

Quinn lingered a little before following orders. She wasn't sure she wanted to do this if Rachel didn't want to. She watched the shorter girl and smiled when she saw Rachel start to help push furniture out of the way so everyone could dance. Quinn dimmed the lights as Puck and Brittany returned with four bottles of liquor and a bunch of glasses.

It wasn't much later that everyone was dancing and drinking having a good time. Quinn pretty much kept to herself, sitting on the arm of the couch. She was off in her head imagining what she should be doing in that moment.

_ Quinn set her drink down and walked straight up to Rachel. The brunette looked up at her and froze. Quinn took the drink out of Rachel's hand and set it down on a conveniently placed coffee table. Then she took Rachel's hand and spun her around before pulling their bodies together. The music around them pulsed and Rachel's hips moved with her own as they started to dance. _

_ Rachel looked up at her, breathless, her eyes staring at her from under her long eyelashes. Her hands made their way down to Rachel's hips as she held them together hard. Rachel's eyes fluttered closed and her head lulled back. Quinn smirked to herself while continuing to grind them together as the deep bass of the song rattled the floor under them._

_ A seductive look slid onto Rachel's face and she leaned up, her lips touching Quinn's ear as she whispered, "Come up to my room." She punctuated the sentence by raking her teeth across Quinn's earlobe. _

_ Rachel didn't wait for Quinn to answer. She pulled Quinn up to her room and took off her own clothes before she even got to the bed. The blonde let Rachel push her back on the bed. Quinn brought her hands up to Rachel's ass, squeezing the firm mass causing Rachel to moan, "Oh Quinn…"_

"Um Quinn?" the real life Rachel asked, looking a little worried at Quinn who was staring off into the space.

The blonde blinked a few times before turning to Rachel, "Oh sorry I just um…zone out."

"Is the party not fun?" Rachel asked a little worried.

"It's totally fun," Quinn answered, "I just… I'm- Vodka makes me think." She offered up her drink as proof.

Rachel let out a playful smile, "What does tequila do? Because it makes Brittany's clothes fall off." She glanced at the blonde who was standing on the coffee table, shirtless and skirtless grinding on Santana.

Quinn chuckled, "I think I'd better keep my clothes on. I don't have a Santana to protect me from the guys if I get naked."

"I'll protect you," Rachel offered immediately. She let out a warm smile. Quinn had really surprised her today. The blonde was quiet during class and when Rachel dropped one of her books in the hallway (not the fault of Quinn) the blonde picked it up for her with a smile.

Quinn wondered how eager Rachel would be to protect her if she knew what she had just been thinking about. She smiled nonetheless. Maybe Rachel wasn't completely drunk at the last party they had, when she confessed her crush. In her head she asked Rachel if she wanted to dance but out loud she suggested, "How about we get a game going?"

"What kind of game?" Rachel asked running her fingers through her hair.

Quinn watched the hair fall back in the perfect spot around Rachel's face before realizing that she should probably answer, "Um how about-"

"Seven minutes in heaven!" Finn yelled and thrust his hands up in the air.

"Good idea," Santana stepped off of the coffee table and gave Brittany a piggyback ride toward the nearest closet, "Don't mind if we do." They both disappeared behind the door and everyone just gaped after them for about a minute before Artie turned up the music to drown them out.

"Not that," Quinn chuckled, "How about…"

"Hide and seek!" Brittany called stepping back out of the closet and closing the door behind her.

"Where's Santana?" Mike asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Brittany giggled and ran her tongue all the way around her lips before answering, "She needs a minute."

"That was fast," Finn looked a little skeptical.

"She is _that_ good," Puck answered with a cocky smirk. She hitched his chin to Brittany, "So Britt, what do you say we-?"

"Buzz off Puckerman," Santana emerged from the closet with a glow about her that wasn't there before.

Everyone decided to play hide and seek because everyone thought it was a stroke of genius because they were mostly drunk. Puck volunteered to go first and laid on the couch with his eyes closed and started counting.

Brittany and Santana ran past Quinn and Rachel. Santana grabbed Rachel's hand who in turn grabbed Quinn's hand as she was being pulled away. Santana led the way up the stairs and down the hallway. She didn't know where she was going, but she kept running until she got to the last door down the hallway. She threw it open and drug the three girls into it. Rachel closed the door of the guest bathroom and looked around.

Santana and Brittany climbed into the shower and closed the door although it was made of frosted glass. Rachel watched as Santana's back was pressed up against glass and Brittany's hands were pressed against the glass on either side of her.

Santana had been surprised by Brittany's dominance as of late. She wasn't complaining. It was just not like her. She was normally so gentle and tender. Santana's shirt was yanked over her head and throw onto the stone floor. Brittany's hands and lips were everywhere. Santana moaned when Brittany bit down on her neck and roughly groped her breasts over her bra. Santana's leg started to run up Brittany's in an attempt to get some attention where it was most needed.

"Well," Rachel sat down on the ground in the linen closet that was in the bathroom with Quinn. They were awfully close; in fact her knees were touching Quinn's. "They're…"

"Horny all the time," Quinn smiled in the dark of the closet. The only light was coming front under the door. "Speaking of horny how was your date with Kevin?"

"How did you get from horny to Kevin?" Rachel asked.

"I saw him check you out this morning," Quinn leaned her head back on the wall behind her, "He so wants to tap that, argyle covered ass of yours."

Rachel blushed at the mention of her ass so bluntly and bit her lip, "It went well I guess. It would have been better if you were there."

"Really?" Quinn asked.

"I don't mean like- on a date or anything…I mean unless-" Rachel grappled for something to dig herself out of a hole with, "I'm really drunk."

Quinn chuckled, "You're not that drunk." Her chuckle was nervous. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She was really, really close to Rachel. She could smell her perfume and her shampoo. She could feel the heat coming off of her. She could feel a distinct heat gathering between her legs at well.

After a long silence, Santana's moans were filling the bathroom and echoing off of the walls. It wasn't helping to ease Quinn's problem either.

"I guess they really don't want to win," Rachel tried to joke.

Quinn swallowed and lulled her head to the side, trying not to think about how close Rachel really was.

"Are you drunk?" Rachel asked quietly.

"Not really no," the blonde turned back to Rachel wondering where this was going.

Rachel took a deep breath, "Neither am I. I know I'm not."

"I don't think you are either," Quinn answered. She wished she could see Rachel's face.

"Quinn I think there's something I need to tell you since neither one of us in drunk this time."

Quinn started to panic. She knew where this was going. This wasn't supposed to come out until the day before she left to go back to McKinley so she could decide how to handle it. This was too soon, too fast. "No there's not."  
"What-what... How did you know what I was going to say?" Rachel sputtered.  
"I just know, okay? And I don't want you to say it."  
"To say what?"  
"Say _it_!"  
"Why not?"  
"Because that would make it real and this isn't real. This is not my life. My school didn't explode. My ex best friend slash current nemesis didn't get crushed by the glee room and saved by her girlfriend. I'm not crushing on who is no longer the most annoying person I've ever met. I don't go to a school where no one can hear me scream and no one respects me. It just... It's not happening."  
"Why is it so horrible? Why is Brittany saving Santana so horrible? So what if you have a crush on who used to be the most annoying person you know? So what?"

"I'm not ready," Quinn breathed, sighing heavily, "I can't…deal with it."

Rachel reached forward and placed her arm on Quinn's shoulder, "No one's asking you to deal with it. I just wanted you to know."

"But you have to want something," Quinn didn't move because of the fear that Rachel would take her hand back.

Rachel shook her head, "No Quinn. I know there are a lot of expectations for you to live up to and I don't want to add to that." Her hand blindly ran up Quinn's arm and cupped her cheek.

"You remember what happened at Brittany's party?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah," Rachel smiled into the dark, "I'm surprised you do though."

"I'm sorry," Quinn sighed, "I didn't want our first kiss to be like that. I was just so frustrated and I figured that you wouldn't remember."

"You thought about our first kiss?" Rachel ran her thumb over Quinn's cheek, "That's so sweet."

"I-didn't-I…" Quinn stopped talking because the door was pulled open.

Mercedes stood there, looking down at them, "Puckerman fell asleep while he was counting." Her eyes flickered to the shower where they could see the blurred outlines of Brittany and Santana sitting in the shower floor.

Rachel gracefully stood and pulled Quinn up with her. "I wondered what was taking so long. There are very few good places to hide in this house."

Quinn looked back at the shower and stepped up to the door, softly knocking. "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah," Santana's voice was shaking when she replied.

Quinn watched as their silhouettes got up and opened the door. They both looked like they had been crying. Santana's top was all wrinkled and crooked, but she didn't move to straighten it. She pulled Brittany out of the bathroom, past Mercedes, Quinn, and Rachel without speaking. Brittany's head was down and she didn't look up as they left.

Santana pulled her all the way out of the house, grabbing a bottle of whiskey on the way out the door. Santana walked to her car and opened the backseat door. Brittany silently slid in and Santana went in after her closing the door.

Brittany just sat in the seat with her hands in her lap facing straight forward, her eyes red and staring at the seat in front of her.

"B, babe, what happened?" Santana asked desperately, "Did I do something?"

Brittany shook her head, "No."

Santana retraced her steps. They were in the shower and her back was against the wall. Brittany was thrusting her fingers hard and fast inside of her and she was biting her lip trying to keep her voice down. Brittany bit down hard on her collarbone and Santana came hard with a shudder and moan. "Oh my god, Britt that was…" She trailed off when she saw tears trailing down Brittany's face. The blonde buried her face in her hands and sunk down on the ground.

"What happened?" Santana asked moving closer to Brittany placing both of her hands on the blonde's upper arm, "Baby, please talk to me. You're scaring me."

Tears welled up in Brittany's eyes. "I can't- I can't stop seeing…I love you so much." Brittany started sobbing, collapsing in Santana's lap.

Santana was terrified of what was going on in front of her. Brittany was crumbling and she didn't know what to do. She stroked Brittany's hair and kissed her cheek, "I love you too. It's okay baby."

Brittany shook her head, "My nightmares are- I keep having like…daydreams," she sniffled and buried her face in Santana's stomach, "I see you…all hurt and the school fell down…then I'm falling…I can't stop it."

Santana nodded in understanding. She knew that she couldn't help Brittany by herself anymore. Brittany needed way more help than she could give her. "Brittany," Santana kissed her cheek and rested her forehead on the blonde's temple. "Let's go inside and tomorrow we'll have to tell your parents. You need to talk to someone else about this. I want to help you- I really do, I just…I'm not enough anymore."

Brittany reluctantly nodded. Santana was always able to fix everything, but if Santana thought she needed more help then she would go along with it.

"I love you Brittany," Santana whispered, "I love you so much."

Brittany sat up and kissed Santana, "I love you too." She could see the worry all over Santana's face, "Don't worry San. I'll be okay."

Santana nodded and opened the car door. When they got inside, she laid Brittany down with Quinn in the guest room and they watched a movie while Santana took a shower. As she was standing in the hot mist, tears flowed freely down her face, mixing with the water before they dropped down the drain.


	8. Chapter 8

Rachel's wardrobe was effectively picked through the next morning because everyone that was left did not have time to go home before heading to school.

"I am so hot," Brittany looked at herself in the mirror. She was in one of Rachel's skirts, which was extra short on her and her midriff was showing because the shirt was a little too short as well.

Santana was watching from the bed. She was a little perplexed about Brittany's behavior. She had woken up like nothing at all happened last night. Santana was slightly hungover and wasn't sure how Brittany was not.

Everyone parted ways after a breakfast of toast and strong coffee. The second Brittany and Santana stepped into the school, their friends flanked them. They gave them the morning update on fights, drug busts, and expulsions.

"Britz that skirt is like… shazam," one of the girls said.

Brittany grinned and twirled so it flared up. The girls laughed and Santana let out a cautious smile. She pulled the most vicious and feisty two girls she knew to the side and talk to them.

"What's up Sancha?" one of the girls smiled. Her smiled faded when she saw the serious look on Santana's face.

The Cheerio bit the inside of her cheek and stared hard at the ground, "I need you guys to look out for Brit okay?"

"Are you going somewhere?" the other one asked.

"Yes…no…" Santana shook her head and shrugged, "Maybe. It doesn't matter if I do. She's just…having a hard time. I don't want to go in depth, but sometime she just needs someone to be _there_ okay? I feel like I've been missing these little…episode things that she has. Actually, I am going to go. I have someone to see."

The girls looked at each other before looking back at Santana, "You want us to watch your girl?"

Santana nodded, "Call me if anything happens. I mean anything out of the ordinary. If she says she doesn't feel good or she just looks sick okay? It's really, really important." Santana clenched her jaw, knowing that tears were coming.

"Of course," the girls nodded enthusiastically.

Santana nodded. She turned back to the group and slid up next to Brittany. "Hey B. I got some things I gotta do today okay? I'll be back as soon as I can. Probably before lunch."

"Can I go with you?" Brittany asked hopefully. Santana could see something akin to fear in Brittany's eyes.

Santana bit her lip, "You should probably stay here. Don't you have a test in Art today?"

The blonde thought about it. She nodded. Brittany held onto the front of Santana's shirt, clenching the material in her fists. "San," Brittany swallowed and rested her forehead on Santana's shoulder. She took a few deep breaths.

"Hey," Santana rubbed her back, "I'll be back soon and if anything happens tell Tori and Ephasia and I'll be back within five minutes. I promise."

Brittany nodded, "Okay." She looked up at Santana with nervous blue eyes but planted a kiss on Santana's lips. "I love you."

"Love you too babe," Santana let out a reassuring smile, "Always."

The drive to school was extremely awkward for Quinn and Rachel. The blonde had somehow lost her car keys at Rachel's house the night before so she had to hitch a ride with Rachel.

"Quinn, there's no need to be nervous," Rachel explained, "Nothing has to change. Except that air horn thing on your phone. That _has_ to go."

The blonde chuckled. She appreciated that Rachel was trying to make her feel less tense about the whole situation. "Okay," Quinn took out her phone and deleted the app, "No more air horn."

When Rachel pulled into a spot at the school, she shut off the car and turned to Quinn, "I'm serious though. Nothing has to change. We can be friends. Although I guess that would be a sort of change." Rachel stopped her rambling to look at Quinn who was watching her intently and hanging on her every word. Rachel tried to follow Quinn's eyes to see exactly where she was looking. She smirked when she saw Quinn's eyes on her lips.

Rachel slowly ran a tongue over her bottom lip and lightly exhaled. Then she moved her tongue across her top like and she watched Quinn's jaw subtly drop. A wicked grin formed on her face and it was then that Quinn realized what was happening. She grabbed her backpack and opened the car door, "No fair Rachel."

Rachel tried to make it look like she felt bad about it; "I'm sorry Quinn I just-" She stopped when Quinn slammed the car door closed. Rachel got out and trotted to catch up with Quinn. She planted herself in front of the blonde, stopping Quinn where she stood.

"Rach, please just move," Quinn pleaded, "I'm really embarrassed right now…. I feel like I'm like one of those pervy guys that daydreams while their girlfriend is talking to them and they just nod like morons and pretend to know what was said."

Rachel shifted her weight from one foot to the other and asked in a tiny voice, "Girlfriend?"

The pale skin of Quinn's face turned red and she tried to start walking around Rachel. "I can't believe I said that out loud….I'm such a fucking wreck."

Before Quinn could get too far, Rachel turned her around with a gently tug on her arm, "Look Quinn, I'm sorry about all this even though the Freudian slips were…endearing." She smiled and it comforted Quinn considerably, Rachel dropped her hand from Quinn's arm and went on, "It's just that I don't think that anyone has ever really found me physically attractive. I mean Noah said I was hot, but I think it was just so I would let him touch my boobs." Rachel nervously ran a hand through her hair. "It's just nice you know? Having someone really see you and like what they see."

The vulnerability in Rachel's face was causing Quinn's heart to race. She wanted to pull the girl into her arms and tell her she was the most beautiful person that she had ever seen. But she couldn't. Something in her mind was blocking out her actions. All she could do was watch Rachel smooth out her skirt. She finally regained speech as the first bell of the day sounded, "I get it."

"Thanks Quinn," Rachel smiled. She turned and started walking next to Quinn into the school, "Are you coming to lunch today?"

Quinn nodded, "I have to get somewhere where there are noises and voices at lunch or I freak."

"I was just getting used to the quiet," Rachel pressed her books to her chest with a playful grin, "And I can sing all the time now and only two other people can hear me and neither one tells me to shut up."

"I like it when you sing," Quinn confessed nervously.

A million watt smile spread across Rachel's face, "Really?" If Quinn had asked, Rachel probably would have agreed to marry her in that instant.

Mr. Schue looked up from the desk he'd be sharing with a couple other teachers in one of the new portables when he heard the door open. Santana was the last person he expected to see so soon. He heard she'd been doing really well at her new school and he figured she'd be reluctant to come back.

"Hey Santana," Mr. Schue stood up. The look on her face was not quite the veil of confidence it usually was.

Santana played with the keys in her hand as she moved to sit down on top of a desk. "Um, Mr. Schue?" Santana finally looked up at him.

It struck him how scared she looked. He moved to the desk in front of her and sat down facing her. "What's wrong?"

"I…It's Brittany," Santana swallowed, "She's like…something happened. She like….she's having trouble sleeping and she's scared…a lot. Sometimes she just starts crying and I don't know what to do." Tears started to fall from Santana's eyes and she tried to maintain some composure. She wiped her eyes and looked down, "Anyway, I can't help her anymore. I tried and I'm really scared that I'm hurting her more than I'm helping. She needs like professional help. And not some bullshit school counselor." She glanced up at him, "No offense. Ms. P is cool and all, but Brittany needs help. Real help."

Mr. Schue nodded, "I'm glad you came to me Santana." He put his hand on her shoulder, "Let me make a few phone calls and we'll see what we can do."

About thirty minutes later, Mr. Schue handed Santana a piece of paper with a name, address and phone number on it. "Emma's therapist recommended him. He's the best trauma psychologist in town. He might be kind of expensive-"

"Money doesn't matter," Santana looked it over. Her eyes went to him before going back to the paper as she turned around, "This is about Brittany."

Santana sat in her car in the parking lot of Jane Addams Academy waiting in her car until her third period class started. She had the phone pressed to her ear explaining to Brittany's mom what was happening and that she had made an appointment for Brittany after school. Brittany's mom asked her every question she could think of, bewildered about how they could have missed such things. They knew she occasionally cried, but Brittany saved most of her pent up emotions for Santana. Then she thanked Santana profusely and told her that she and her husband would be there when the appointment was over to take both girls to dinner.

She heard the bell ring through the window of her car. "I gotta get to class Mrs. P, but I'll see you later okay?"

"Of course honey," Brittany's mom added, her voice a little choked up, "Thank you so much. I don't know what we'd do without you."

Santana let out a small smile, "I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Brittany. I owe her more than I could ever give. Bye Mrs. P."

"Bye Santana," her mom added, a hint of pride in her voice, "We're so lucky that you love Brittany so much."

Santana looked down at the ground as she walked up the stairs to the entrance of the school. She pocketed her phone and after she got through the metal detectors, she felt two arms wrap around her from behind. "San! You're back!"

Santana smiled and turned around to take Brittany in her arms, "Of course. I told you it wouldn't take too long."

"Where did you go?" Brittany asked, taking Santana's hand as they started walking to class.

"I went to see Mr. Schue," Santana nervously kicked at the ground, "I think-remember what I said last night when we were in the car? About how I'm not enough to help you anymore?"

The blonde's face fell and she solemnly nodded. "Yeah."

"Well after school today I'm going to take you to see a guy who can help you," Santana looped her arm around Brittany's shoulders, not letting go of her hand.

"What kind of guy?"

"He's a psychologist B," Santana explained and opened the door so they could enter their class, "Mr. Schue said he's the best."

Brittany wrinkled her nose, "What do I have to do?"

"Just talk," Santana answered, "He's going to ask you a bunch of questions and you just tell him the truth."

Brittany sank into her seat and watched as Santana let go of her hand and sat down in the chair next to her. "Okay. If you think it'll help."

Santana let out a hopeful smile, "I think it will." She quickly stole a peck from Brittany before sitting straight at the desk.


	9. Chapter 9

"Why did you want to talk to me?" Santana shifted uncomfortably in the chair across from the shrink's desk. She hated shrinks. She always had. They freaked her out. Ms. Pillsbury used to freak her out until she found out that she wasn't actually a shrink.

"You're the one with the major concerns about Brittany," he smiled trying to make her comfortable, "You also seem to be her closest confidant. I'm not asking you to break her confidence. Just...tell me about your concerns."

"Oh okay," Santana nodded, "She's like...she starts crying at random times. Well not really random. Usually after..." She trailed off. She'd never been shy about speaking about sex, but this was like sacred or something.

"After what?"

Santana looked down, "Sex."

"Ah."

"Ah? What does that mean?"

"Nothing yet," he smiled, "Has the sex changed? Before the incident and after the incident."

Santana sighed. Calling it the incident seemed like it took away from the event that it was. But she was here for Brittany, not to pick apart the word choice of a shrink. "Yeah."

"How?"

After a brief pause, she crossed one leg over the other, "She's more...aggressive. Sometimes she's just rough. Last night we were at a party and we were playing hide and seek," Yeah that sounded stupid now that she was sober, "Anyway, we were hiding in the shower and she like attacked me. It was so hot, but then when I...finished, she started crying."

Instead of the pervy look Santana was expecting when she looked at him, all she saw was thoughtfulness, "And that's not normal for her?"

"Wha-no," Santana shook her head, "I mean I've done it like twice but that was when I was scared of what she meant to me."

He nodded, "Maybe she's scared of what you mean to her."

Santana frowned. That didn't make sense, "Brittany's not scared. She's brave. She's a fucking hero. She is always the one that tells me she loves me first. I'm a fucking coward compared to her." When she realized she was raising her voice, Santana calmed down. She remembered that she didn't need to defend Brittany here. "Sorry."

He made a note and nodded, "It's okay. Any other changes in her behavior? Is she eating?"

Santana nodded, "Everything else is normal. She's always been really sweet and affectionate. She just gets scared sometimes and has nightmares. I usually end up staying at her house because I'm the only one that can calm her down."

He leaned back in his chair, looking her over. "It seems to me that you're very good for Brittany. I'll talk to her now and see what I come up with. There's a coffee shop down the street if you want to go get something while she's-"

Santana interrupted him as she stood, "I'll be in the waiting room."

He let out a small smiled and nodded, making another note. He figured as much.

Brittany looked up from the three year old Vogue that was on the coffee table when they walked in. When she saw Santana, she stood up.

Santana offered her a reassuring smile, "Are you going to be okay?"

Brittany nodded, trying to be brave. "He's nice right?"

"Yeah," the brunette pulled Brittany into her arms.

"Are you going to stay here?" she asked.

With a kiss on the blonde's cheek, she pulled back and nodded, "Of course. I'll be right here."

After a deep breath, Brittany walked into the room and closed the door. Santana rubbed her face and sighed. When she looked up she saw that Brittany's mom was staring at her. Santana walked to the armchair in the room and sat down in it.

"What did he want to know?" she asked curiously.

Santana shrugged, nonchalantly, "Just if there has been any changes in her behavior." She laid her head back.

Brittany's mom nodded, "Thank so much Santana. I hate to think of what would have happened if you hadn't been here with her afterward."

Santana offered a small smile, trying to reassure her mom, "If I hadn't been here, you would have see it. I'm just with her all the time."

Tears filled Brittany's mom eyes. She stood up and motioned for Santana to stand too. The Cheerio did as she was told and was immediately enveloped in a huge, "I'm sorry, I just needed to hug you."

"It's okay," Santana smiled, tears springing to her own eyes. "I probably needed one too."

"This is pointless," Rachel huffed during her interim glee club meeting. She looked at Quinn, "What are we even doing here?"

"We're trying to show like solidarity or something in glee clubs. We're trying to be friendly," Quinn whispered back although no one could hear them but the director who couldn't hear them if he tilted his head the wrong way. "Plus Kevin asked us to come back."

Rachel crossed her arms and pouted in her chair, "But no one can hear me sing."

The pout that used to annoy Quinn, made her smile. She took a moment for formulate a plan, "Do you really need an audience where everyone can hear you?"

"Yes," Rachel whined.

Quinn turned to the boy next to her and signed to him. He signed back. Quinn smiled and thanked him before standing up. She turned to the students and the director and signed to them before grabbing Rachel's hand and pulling her out of the room.

"What did you tell them?" Rachel asked.

"That your bra strap broke and we have to find a safety pin," Quinn pulled Rachel into a room that she found was an auditorium. It was a lot smaller than the one at McKinley, but it was still spacious. Quinn let got of Rachel's hand when they were on the stage and hopped off of it, taking a seat in the first row. "Here. Now the whole audience can hear you."

Rachel let out a smiled and tilted her head down, her hair falling and framing her face. "I didn't mean-"

"C'mon," Quinn said hopefully from the front row, "I went through all the trouble of lying and kidnapping. You might as well."

With a renewed confidence because she knew Quinn wanted her to sing, "Any requests?"

Quinn shook her head, "It's up to you. I'm just a crazed stalker that kidnaps you so you'll sing to me."

Rachel laughed. She nodded, "I hope you don't mind that it's acapella."

The blonde shook her head and waved for Rachel to go on.

After a deep breath Rachel started sing, a permanent smile on her face.

I could show the world how to smile  
I could be glad all of the while  
I could turn the gray skies to blue  
If I had you

I could leave my old days behind  
Leave all my pals and never mind  
There is nothing I couldn't do  
If I had you

I could climb a snow-capped mountain  
Sail the mighty ocean wide  
I could cross a burning desert  
If I had you by my side

I could be a queen dear on ground  
Humble or poor  
Rich or renown  
There is nothing I couldn't do  
If I had you 

Quinn melted in her seat. She felt like she was a puddle on the floor listening to Rachel and it felt amazing to finally let herself feel it. There were times when they'd be singing together and she's take Rachel's hand because she had a small lapse in will power. Sometimes she'd just smile at Rachel and when Rachel smiled back she'd felt like she would faint.

Rachel looked down at Quinn waiting for some sort of feedback. Finally the blonde stood up and started clapping. Rachel giggled and playfully bowed.

"So do you wanna…" Rachel started, but a ringing interrupted her.

Quinn took her phone out of her back pocket and apologized before answering it, "What?…I don't know where she is. She's probably with Brittany, did you call her?… No…I can't believe you used booty called me…" Quinn sighed and looked up at Rachel, "She's standing right next to me…No I'm not giving her the phone so you can proposition her…Oh it is?…Alright I'll be there…No!" Quinn snapped her phone shut and angrily glared at it.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked, carefully as she hopped off of the stage.

Blonde hair rippled as Quinn shook her head, "Nothing. Puck was just bitching because there are no girls at his school and he can't get a hold of Santana so he's going through all the girls in his contact list. Your name is right after mine so you might expect a call."

"Are you going to meet him?" Rachel frowned.

"No," Quinn quirked an eyebrow, "What make you think that?"

"You said that you'd be somewhere."

"Oh!" Quinn started walking toward the backdoor, "Mike's birthday is Friday and he wants everyone in the glee club to get together for pizza or something."

Rachel chuckled, walking closer to Quinn than necessary. She looped her arm through Quinn's, "That sounds fun."

The Cheerio swallowed hard. Rachel was touching her. Well Rachel was touching her sleeve, but she could feel the heat through the thin material. She felt Rachel's delicate fingers wrap around her bicep as she leaned into her. Quinn managed to choke out, "What are you plans for tonight?"

Rachel shrugged, "I was going to see if the boys were still working on the school and if not I was just going to go home. Why?" She hoped that Quinn was going to ask her out. She was praying that Quinn was going to ask her out. She would do anything if Quinn would ask her out. But she was playing the patient card. It was a card that never lasted her very long and if there was going be alcohol at Mike's birthday bash which since Puck was there, there would be, she was going to have to stay sober all night. The slightest slip in her inhibitions, she'd fall all over Quinn.

Rachel squinted as they stepped outside. The sun was hanging on the horizon casting and orange glow around the world.

"Just…wondering," Quinn snapped out, She internally cursed herself. It would be so easy. Do you want to go hang out by my pool? Do you want to go get something to eat? Do you want to get some coffee? Do you want to get naked and… Okay, bad train of thought. She sighed as they stopped by Quinn's car, "I'm sorry."

Rachel rested her head on Quinn's shoulder and nodded, "It's okay. I told you I'd wait and I will." She smiled softly as she pulled away from Quinn to go to her side of the car.

Quinn hit her head on the roof of her car. A little harder than she intended by maybe it could make the jumbled up mess in her a head a little less mixed up. When she finally got into the car, Rachel was already in her seat, buckled up, and her hands folded on her lap as she stared out the window.

Against Quinn hit her head. This time on the steering wheel. She counted the marks on her speedometer trying to think of something other that how utterly disappointed she was with herself. Why wouldn't she do it? Why couldn't she just jump? She was already standing on the edge, staring down at Rachel who was patiently twiddling her thumbs at the bottom.

Her internal metaphor was interrupted when she felt fingers gently run through her hair. She turned her head to see Rachel looked at her sympathetically.

Finally, after fighting them for as long as she would, tears filled Quinn's eyes. She quietly asked Rachel, "What's wrong with me?"

The sadness was apparent on Rachel's face. A veil of tears over her eyes, but she sniffled and blinked them away, "There's nothing wrong with you. You haven't had the easiest life. You're a very…repressed person. You have just have to find a way to be a…an expressed person. I mean a month ago your high school blew up and your best frienemy was trapped under the school." Rachel gasped, "Maybe we could start there. I could help you be friends with Santana because you're already halfway there and you almost lost her entirely so your emotions might notice the urgency and come out to play. Then I'll help you," Rachel started singing, "Open your heart to me. I'll hold the lock and you turn the key."

Quinn giggled and nodded, sitting up straight. "Thanks Rach. That sounds like a good idea. Do you want to come with me?"

"Of course," Rachel grinned, "Emotional repression such as yours needed an expert."

"Since when are you an expert?"

"I watch a lot of Oprah."

Quinn laughed and pulled out of the parking lot.


	10. Chapter 10

Santana didn't realize how tired she was until she'd been sitting still for ten minutes. She fell asleep on the waiting room couch while she was watching the second hand revolve around the clock.

"Santana, honey," B's mom gently shook her up.

"Huh?" Santana slowly sat up pushing her hair out of her face.

"It's time to go."

She sat up and saw Brittany thoughtfully watching her. When her eyes met Brittany's, the blonde smiled. Santana smiled back, relieved that Brittany looked happy.

When they got to Santana's car, she found that her phone was in the driver's seat. She didn't realize that it had fallen out of her pocket. She found eight missed calls from Puck and a text from Quinn.

"Quinn wants us to meet her and Rachel at the park. Do you feel like going?"

Brittany nodded eagerly.

Quinn was watching her feet drag along the ground as the swing swayed. She held onto the metal chain thoughtfully watching the rocks blur by on the ground.

Rachel was leaning on one of the support poles on the swing set, her eyes set on Quinn. Oprah wasn't helping her to solve this complex problem swinging in front of her. She didn't understand. She was such an open person and had been encouraged to be that way since birth. If Quinn had a drug addiction or was a swinger, Oprah could help. They didn't make shows about this. As she was mentally writing a letter to Oprah asking for her help, she spotted Brittany and Santana walking up, hand in hand.

"Hey," Rachel was the first to speak.

Brittany sat in the swing next to Quinn.

"What's up Q?" Santana asked.

Quinn looked to Rachel for some moral support. Rachel offered a kind, reassuring smile. The blonde nodded and stood, "Let's go for walk."

Santana glanced at Brittany to make sure she'd be okay. Brittany nodded and kicked off. Rachel sat in the swing next to Brittany.

Quinn and Santana started walking around the cement path that trailed through and around the park.

"Are you okay Q?" Santana asked. She was extremely tired but still concerned.

Quinn shrugged, "I'm...trying to decompress." Quinn shook her head, "I don't want to fight with you any more. No more power struggles. No more mean names. I want to be friends."

Santana nodded, "I agree."

"Really? That easy?"

Santana sighed, "I've been thinking about...life a lot and... as much as I don't want to admit it. I need a friend. I'm about to explode here. I don't care about power anymore. I just want normal."

Quinn nodded, "Me too."

Santana let out a long sigh, "Okay well tell me what's going on with you and Berry?"

Quinn looked at Santana skeptically, but answered, "I like her."

"Like, like her like her?"

Quinn nodded.

Santana paused before nodding, "That makes sense."

"How?"

"You were kinda obsessed with her. Making her life miserable and all. You're like that boy that kept pulling Britt's hair in second grade." Santana glanced over at Brittany and Rachel who were talking, still on the swings.

"Whatever happened to him?"

"He transferred."

Quinn gasped, "Oh my god, you made it look like he peed himself. Everyone made fun of him...mostly you til he moved."

"I did not." The brunette tried to hide a smile.

"You poured water all down his pants."

"It was apple juice."

Quinn chuckled and shook her head, "If he turns out to be a serial killer. It's on you."

Santana laughed, "Okay." She took a minute and asked, "So are you two like together?"

Quinn huffed, "I dunno. No...I can't...I can't ask her out or like be with her. I'm trying. I really am. She told me she'd wait until I was ready."

"Hold up. You told her?"

Quinn nodded, "Well she figured it out."

"Then what's the big deal? Go for it."

"I want to. God I want to. I just...Rachel says I'm repressed." Quinn looked behind then and couldn't see Brittany and Rachel through the mess of trees and playground equipment.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Understatement of the century."

"I know. I'm trying though."

"Alright listen. Here's what you do. You walk right up to her and hold her hand." Santana slid her hands into her pockets.

"What?"

"It works."

It clicked for Quinn who let out a smile, "Can I start slower? Like holding her pinkie?"

Santana smirked, "Yeah, yeah. I had to start slower, but you don't have to deal with an overbearing blonde Barbie of a head Cheerio."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "I have to deal with a snarky new captain."

"I'm trying to help Q."

"I know."

"I won't make fun of you...much."

"Okay. Now what's your problem?" Quinn offered.

Santana rubbed her arm trying to think of how to articulate what was going on, "B and I just came from a shrink's office."

"Like couple's counseling?"

Santana shook her head, "For Brittany. She's been having nightmares and she cries at weird times. I'm not good enough to help her alone."

"With what she saw, what she did...hell even what she felt. I doubt any one person could help her. But you're the one that helps the most. I can't even imagine what would have happened had you...you know...not..." Quinn didn't want to say it out loud because it made her nauseous. She flickered her wrist trying to convey the word she couldn't say.

Santana nodded slowly.

"Just think. What if Brittany was inside when it happened? Seeing what happened to her was bad but S you looked ten times worse. We all sat in the waiting room while you were in the operating room for six hours. This whole mess would probably be worse if B had been conscious during that."

Santana nodded. Quinn was right. Every time she thought about it the scar on her side tingled. It wasn't her only scar but it was the biggest one. She caught Brittany staring at it and sometimes Brittany would touch it carefully as if she pressed too hard, Santana would fall apart.

Santana gasped, "What if I'm hurting her more than helping?"

"What are you talking about?"

"She sees me and she remembers. Every scar or bruise...she sees them and remembers all over again."

Quinn pivoted in front of Santana to face her, "Are you even listening to yourself? She would remember even if she didn't look at you everyday. It's not the kind of thing you forget. When you look into her eyes you know that she needs you."

Tears started making a steady trail down Santana's face, "I'm not strong enough for this."

Quinn wrapped her arms around S and pulled her into a fierce hug. She didn't know what to say so she just let her cry.

When Santana finished, she wiped her face. She started to thank Quinn, but the blonde held up her hand. "Don't worry about it."

Santana nodded.

They started walking back toward there Rachel and Brittany were. As they walked, Quinn picked up Santana's hand, "You've been neglecting yourself."

Santana took her hand back and looked at her nails. "I didn't realize they were this bad."

"How about you let me and Rachel take care for Brit while you go get your nails done," Quinn offered, "You totally deserve it."

"I don't know…" Santana dropped her hand/

"C'mon," the blonde went on, "You need to take care of yourself so that you can be what Brittany needs. If you fall apart what's going to keep her from falling apart too?"

Santana took a moment and finally agreed. "I guess that's a good idea. It'll only take like thirty minutes right?"

Quinn nodded, "She'll be fine. We'll go to my house and watch a movie and I swear to god I'll call you if anything goes wrong."

Santana explained to Brittany what she was going to go do. Brittany smiled at her and gave her a hug.

As they walked to the parking lot Quinn was humming 'I want to hold you hand'. Santana rolled her eyes and bumped her shoulder against Quinn. The blonde realized what she was doing and blushed.

"Do it," Santana whispered.

Quinn looked at Rachel and then her eyes trailed down to Rachel's hand. She started to reach for it, but before she could touch her, Brittany threw her arms around Rachel and they skipped the rest of the way to the car.

"Whatever that shrink is doing," Santana mentioned to Quinn, "I hope he keeps doing it."

When Quinn got into the car, she did it with the intention of holding Rachel's hand all the way back to the house, but found that Brittany was in the front seat.

"Brit," Quinn said when they arrived in her living room, "Why don't you go pick out a movie?"

The other blonde nodded and went to the large DVD collection that the Fabrays have used for many, many years to avoid interacting with each other.

Rachel was knelt down next to her purse digging out her phone. When she looked up Quinn was standing right in front of her. She let out a curious smile, "Hi."

Quinn wiped her palms on her jeans and took a few deep breaths.

"Quinn?"

"Just give me a second," Quinn closed her eyes and counted to ten. Then she slowly reached forward and slid her hand into Rachel's.

The shorter girl smiled and threaded her finger together with Quinn's. Quinn let out a relieved sigh. Rachel stroked Quinn's hand with her thumb, "I'm proud of you, Quinn."

The blonde let out a broad grin. It felt great for Rachel to say that. She saw the look on Rachel's face morph from pride to something akin to longing. Rachel's eyes dropped to her lips and she saw Rachel's lips part. Then Rachel's eyes flickered back up to Quinn's.

"It's starting," Brittany called from the couch.

Quinn's head snapped in Brittany's direction. She saw the blonde sitting on the couch, curled up on one side. When she looked back at Rachel, the brunette gave her a weak smile, gently squeezing her hand before disengaging them.

Rachel and Quinn made their way over to the couch and sat down. Brittany leaned onto Rachel who started stroking her hair. The dancer rested her head on Rachel's shoulder, cuddling into her they way Brittany does.

Quinn would occasionally glance over and wish that she was in Brittany's place. She picked up her phone and announced, "I'm going to make popcorn."

Rachel looked over at her and smiled at her in an acknowledgement.

The blonde went into the kitchen, but slipped out the back door, taking a seat on the porch after sticking the popcorn in the microwave.

She put her phone to her ear to hear it ringing. "Hey Q."

"Hey San," Quinn sighed into her phone, "I'm sorry for interrupting your alone time."

"No problem," Santana replied, "I'm just getting a quick tan in before my nails get done. You have ten minutes."

"While you're there you might should get your weave looked at," Quinn playfully jabbed.

Santana reached up to touch her hair, but hit her hand on the top of the tanning bed. "Damn it Q."

Quinn chuckled. "Your weave looks fine. I just…You know how Brittany gets during movies."

"Yeah, she gets all cuddly," Santana replied.

"Well she's all cuddly with Rachel and-"

"And you want to be all cuddly with Rachel."

The blonde sighed, "Yes. This is stupid. Why can't I just…"

"Because you are scared shitless," Santana replied.

"I used to kiss Finn and Puck all the time," Quinn ran an hand through her hair and stood up, starting to pace, "We held hands and cuddled…"

"You can't do it now because you actually like her and you've never really, really liked anyone before," Santana explained, "I know you Q. You're used to having a game plan. You actually like Rachel and she's throwing off your manipulating and conniving ways. She's blinding you and you are scared shitless."

"How do I make it stop?" Quinn asked.

"Just do it," Santana stated.

"I can't!"

Santana sighed heavily, "Q, you can. You just need a little liquid courage. It worked the first time."

"The first time?"

"Yeah when you and Rachel were making out in the kitchen at Puck's party," Santana stated.

"How did you know about that?" Quinn squealed.

Santana chuckled, "I know everything that goes down at those parties. Anyway, I'll be over in an hour and I'll figure something out, okay? My timer's going off. Is B okay?"

"She's fine," Quinn stated, "Thanks S."

"No problem Q."

Quinn stood up and pocketed her phone. When she turned around she saw Rachel standing on the other side of the sliding glass door with a bag of open popcorn in her hand, watching her and thoughtfully chewing.

Quinn dropped her head and opened the door, "You didn't happen to hear any of that did you?"

Rachel shook her head an amused smile on her face, "No I didn't. Were you talking about me?"

"Sorta," the blonde replied taking some popcorn from the bag and shoved it into her mouth so she would have to talk about it.

"What did you say about me?"

"Santana says that you scare the shit out of me," Quinn answered.

Rachel furrowed her eyebrows, "What?"

"She's right," Quinn sighed, "I'm so scared of how I feel and what this means and how…I could hurt you." The blonde shook her head, "How I've already hurt you."

Rachel put the popcorn on the counter and dusted her hands off on her skirt. She crossed her arms and looked up at Quinn, "I could have told you all of that."

"How do I fix it because…I feel like shit," Quinn sighed, "Santana's right. I've never, really, really liked someone like this. And I want to…show you that."

"Close your eyes."

"What?" the blonde asked.

"Close your eyes," Rachel stated, "Trust me."

Quinn took a deep breath and obeyed. She felt Rachel take her hand and move it toward the short girl. She felt the curve of Rachel's hip under her fingertips.

"Take a deep breath baby," Rachel whispered.

Quinn took a long shaky breath and felt Rachel take her other hand. It moved to Rachel's other hip. Rachel's hands ghosted up Quinn's arms and to the blonde's shoulders, and met behind Quinn's neck under a waterfall of blonde hair.

Soft music started floating around the room. Quinn's eyes opened and she and Rachel both looked at the door of the kitchen where Brittany was smiling. There was music playing on her phone and she gently set it down on the counter before dimming the lights and disappearing.

They both giggled. That was until Quinn realized that her hands were still on Rachel's hips. She gave them a gentle squeeze before looking down into Rachel's eyes.

Rachel was the first one to start swaying to the music and Quinn was soon to follow. Rachel took a chance and rested her head on Quinn's shoulder knowing that it may send the blonde running. However Quinn stayed, although tensing up a bit. It took a while before she relaxed again and continued swaying.

Suddenly a deep bass beat started.

_Far as I know you a freak_

_A lil' nasty girl to shake her ass to the beat_

_Clap, clap, skeet, skeet_

_All I really wanna do but she don't come cheap_

Quinn and Rachel started laughing. Quinn's head fell to Rachel's shoulder as she laughed. The mood was perfect and then Brittany got a phone call. Rachel reached behind her and grabbed the phone. When she saw who it was, she answered, "Hey."

"Berry?" Santana asked, "Why do you have Brittany's phone?"

"It's a long, story," Rachel answered, "But I'll find Brittany for you if you want."

"No you don't have to," Santana answered, "I'm gonna pick up a pizza on the way back. What do you want?"

"What do you mean, what do I want?"

"I mean you're some freaky vegan," Santana answered, "What the hell do you want to eat?"

"Oh, just a salad would be great," Rachel smiled and leaned into Quinn's arms, feeling them wrap tight around her, "Thank you Santana."

"Don't mention it," Santana answered, "Ever."

Rachel put the phone down and pulled Quinn backward until Rachel's back hit the edge of the counter. Quinn could feel the heat of Rachel's body on her and invading her. There was nothing she wanted more than to repeat what she did while they were at that party.

But every time she tried to dip her head down to capture Rachel's lips, she froze in place.

Rachel saw this and nodded, trying to hide her disappointment, "This is a lot of progress for one day."

Quinn's eyes grew watery unexpectedly, "I'm such an idiot."

"No you're not," Rachel ran her finger through Quinn's hair, "And I told you I'd wait."

"You shouldn't have to."

"But I want to." Rachel pushed off of the counter and disengaged from Quinn, but took her hand. "C'mon let's go check on Brittany."

Quinn nodded, extremely disappointed in herself. She really hoped that Santana could help. She figured that she could. Santana always did her best thinking in the tanning bed.


	11. Chapter 11

"Okay," Santana stood up after they had finished their dinner. She disappeared up the stairs and returned with a box in her hand. "Step one of the get cure Quinn of being an emotional cripple." She dropped the box on the table.

"Twister?" Quinn asked.

"Yes," Santana nodded, "To show you that you can touch Berry without actually exploding." She opened the box and set up the mat, "Get to it."

"Left foot green," Santana announced. She was seated on the couch next to Brittany who was examining her nails. She was already getting some dirty ideas because of the newly polished nails. It was getting difficult for her to not say anything.

Santana spun the arrow and called to the two, "Right hand blue."

Quinn looked down at her hands and her feet. She was slipping and the closest blue dot was under Rachel. She slid her hand under Rachel, her elbow grazing the shorter girl's stomach.

"Rachel's so flexible," Brittany commented.

Quinn had already noticed. She already noticed the way that Rachel's tights clung to every lean muscle on her legs. Rachel's legs were practically on opposite sides of the mat. Quinn was hovering over one of her legs and hand her arm under the brunette.

Brittany had her hand on the outside of Santana's and ran Santana's new nails down her arm. Santana immediately noticed and saw the lust in Brittany's eyes as Santana pressed harder. Brittany bit her lips leaned forward to whisper in Santana's ear.

Santana's eyes got wide. Brittany usually never talked like that. Most of the time it was just innuendos and some PG-13 suggestiveness, but what Brittany just whispered in her ear was some borderline X-rated stuff. She punctuated it with a nibble on Santana's ear.

Santana knew that she need to get this game over with so that she could take Brittany home…or at least out to her car. She looked at the two and offered. "Left hand red."

Rachel liked this game. She was good at this game and Rachel Berry liked to win. She was going to win, by any means necessary. Rachel reached behind over Quinn and put her hand the dot. The blonde was facing her, with her arms propped behind her. Her stomach was touching Rachel's and the brunette's right leg was stretched under her Quinn's left leg. If Rachel bent her knee just a little, it would graze against the area right under Quinn's ass. She did this once and Quinn gasped.

Their eyes met and Quinn started having trouble breathing. She couldn't seem to escape the brown eyes that were hovering over her. She licked her lips and let out a shallow breath. Rachel readjusted her hold because she started slipping and she didn't want to fall on Quinn. They were doing so well. They'd accidentally touched like fifty times and Quinn didn't run away yet. She was scared at if she fell on top of Quinn, she was sure that Quinn would bolt.

"Uh Santana could you announce the next one? Please?" Rachel asked, her eye never leaving Quinn's. When there was no answer, she glanced at the couch and saw that the only thing was left was the wheel. Brittany and Santana were nowhere to be seen. "It seems we've been abandoned."

"Um," Quinn swallowed, "I…um…yeah." She readjusted her hold. It was starting to put a strain on her shoulders. "I um…it hurts."

"Oh I'm so sorry," Rachel immediately pushed herself away from Quinn. However as she pushed herself away, her heel caught Quinn's leg and she fell backwards. Her head hit the end table next to the couch and she immediately grabbed it. "Ow!"

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" Quinn shot up and knelt down next to Rachel, cradling the back of her head.

Rachel chuckled, "I just bumped my head. I'm okay."

Quinn ran her fingers through Rachel's hair, "Are you sure? I can take you to the ER. I mean are you bleeding?"

"No," Rachel sat up and shook her head, Quinn's hands dropping from her body. They sat still for a moment, until they heard Santana. "Oh god Brit!"

"Apparently they haven't gone far," Rachel breathed out.

Quinn shook her head, "They can't keep their hands off of each other."

"I wish I could say the same for us," Rachel let out a little louder than she had wanted.

The blonde turned to Rachel. She scrambled to get up, "I said I'm sorry. I'm really, really trying Rachel! I love you! I just don't know how!" Tears were streaming down Quinn's face as she yelled. Before Rachel would try to take it back, Quinn had already made it out the front door.

Santana panted hard against Brittany's shoulder as she came down. Brittany was standing between her legs in front of the bathroom sink. Brittany could already feel the red scratches down her back to stop stinging.

"Was that Q yelling?" Santana asked, placing chaste kisses on Brittany's shoulder.

"I think so," Brittany answered. She closed her eyes when Santana nipped at her jaw. She let out a smile, "We should go check."

Santana nodded, "Just…give me a sec. I don't think I can walk yet."

Brittany giggled and kissed Santana, "I'll go check. You stay here."

"Okay," Santana nodded and kissed Brittany one last time, "I love you."

"Love you too," Brittany echoed and turned around to grab her shirt.

"Oh my god B," Santana reached down and touched the raised lines on Brittany's back, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to." She glanced at her nails, "I guess I should file these down."

"It's okay," Brittany happily answered, pulling her shirt on. She walked out of the bathroom and disappeared.

When Brittany got down the stairs she found Rachel sitting on the floor with her knees to her chest, sobbing.

"What's wrong?" the blonde asked, falling to her knees next to Rachel.

Rachel shook her head and looked up, "I said something stupid and Quinn left….she loves me." Rachel sniffled, "She told me."

"That's good right?" Brittany tried to be hopeful.

"But" Rachel took a shaky breath and wiped her eyes, "We heard you guys upstairs and she said you two can't keep your hands off of each other and I said, although I knew I shouldn't have, that I wish I could say the same for us."

Brittany studied Rachel, thinking over what she just said, "Why didn't you go after her?"

"What?" Rachel asked.

The blonde looked at Rachel like she was not making any sense, "You have to go after her. It's like the rules. Every time Santana says something stupid and I leave she comes after me."

"I don't know where she went," Rachel sighed.

Brittany got up when Santana came down and said, "Where would Quinn go?"

"What?"

"Rachel upset Quinn and she needs to go after her," Brittany explained.

"What did you say Berry?" a hard look took over Santana's face.

Tears started to get heavier on Rachel's face, "I just want her to be able to touch me. We can barely hold hands. We've only kissed once and we were both drunk."

"That doesn't mean that she's not trying!" Santana yelled, "She's all fucked up about it. She calls me all the damn time because she really, really wants to."

"I know," Rachel sighed, "I just…" She sunk down on the couch, "I feel like…I feel like it's my fault. Like I'm not pretty enough or I'm not trying hard enough or I'm not being supportive enough or maybe she doesn't trust me enough."

Santana rolled her eyes, "Or maybe this has absolutely nothing to do with you and maybe you need to get your big head out of your ass long enough to-"

"Hey!" Quinn barked from the door of the living room, Her eyes narrowed at Santana, "You need to step off, okay?"

"H-How long have you been there?" Rachel stuttered, nervously looking from Quinn to the floor.

Quinn didn't answer. She eyed Santana and Brittany. "Are you guys staying the night?"

Santana shrugged and looked at Brittany. Their parents pretty much let them do what they want because they hoped that whatever they did would help Brittany. Stayed at Quinn's on a school night wasn't a big idea.

"Did you want us to?" Santana asked, curiously. Quinn was just yelling at her and now she was trying to get them to stay the night.

Quinn nodded, She monotonely said, "Please."

Brittany and Santana nodded.

"Okay, now Rachel and I need to talk, but I want you guys here to keep us both in the same room no matter what okay?" Quinn glanced at Rachel.

Again Brittany and Santana nodded. They took a seat on the armchair, Brittany in the middle with Santana in her lap.

"Okay," Quinn sat down next to Rachel.

"What did you hear?" Rachel asked.

"Everything," Quinn let out a small smile, "I didn't actually leave. I just went into the kitchen."

"Oh," Rachel looked down, "I'm really, really sorry Quinn."

The blonde shook her head, "I shouldn't have freaked out. I know this is hard on me, but I guess I didn't think of how hard this is for you."

"I know you're trying Quinn and I'll wait. I really will," Rachel nodded, "However long it takes."

Quinn dropped her head and took a deep breath. She reached forward and took Rachel's hand. Quinn leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss on Rachel's cheek.

"Aww," came from the armchair. Quinn and Rachel giggled looking over expecting to see Brittany with a smile on her face, cooing at them, but Brittany had fallen asleep and Santana was trying to hid her grin.

"Is she okay?" Rachel asked, indicating Brittany.

Santana nodded and stroked Brittany's hair, "She's just tired. We've had a long day."

Rachel nodded and turned to Quinn, who was looking down at their joined hands. She smiled and kissed Quinn's cheek. She didn't pull away immediately and instead whispered in Quinn's ear, "I love you too."


	12. Chapter 12

Quinn scrawled 'Rachel' lightly across the surface of her desk with a pencil as Mr. Schue droned on about something about Spanish or Spain or something. She was in a sea of red and white Cheerio uniforms on their first day back at what was being called McKinley Jr. The portable buildings were small and cramped and smelled of chemicals that Quinn was sure was the glue that held the building together.

She missed Rachel already. The shorter girl was now stuck at the deaf school all by herself. Quinn glanced down at her phone that was displayed prominently on her desk because she was in the back and it wasn't like any other girl in the classroom was trying to hide theirs. She sent a quick text to Rachel then rolling her eyes at herself. How sad was she sending an 'I miss you' when she had dropped Rachel off at school mere hours ago?

Santana was watching Quinn mope around the class while Brittany sat in the desk behind her, braiding her hair. She looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost lunchtime. She took her phone out and sent a text.

As soon as the bell rang, Santana and Brittany got up and followed the herd of Cheerios to the cafeteria. The actual cafeteria didn't have much damage so it was already completely back to normal. However since there were only Cheerios at the school and Coach Sylvester was in charge, the only thing to eat was from a salad bar.

"This blows," Santana said to the two blondes, "Let's go." Quinn and Brittany nodded and followed her out to her car.

"Where are we going?" Quinn asked, as Santana drove in the opposite direction of their usual haunts.

"We're going to pick up," Santana paused. She was trying to be nice so she had to get past midget, hobbit, RuPaul, man-hands, short stack, stubbles and a whole barrage of other mean names to finally get to, "Berry."

Quinn's face lit up and she looked out the window as Haverbrook came into view. Rachel was sitting on the front steps of the school reading a book.

The blonde tried to look more in control of herself as Rachel looked up and trotted to the car, sliding into the backseat next to her. Rachel smiled shyly at Quinn and Quinn returned the smile.

"Thanks for picking me up Santana," Rachel mentioned breaking eye contact with Quinn to glance at the driver.

"No problem," Santana answered and took off. She drove for a few seconds before asking, "Diner or drive-thru."

The unanimous answer was diner. She drove around until she found a suitable one and parked.

"That was nice," Brittany offered quiet as she and Santana walked toward the portable building that was closest to the fence that encased the school.

She was talking, but Santana knew that her mind wasn't on the words. Brittany's eyes were locked onto the building that nearly crushed them both. She was worried about what would happen when they finished the construction of the school; when they both had to start going to classes in the building.

Santana was so deep in thought that she didn't notice that Brittany was dragging her past the portable and toward the barriers. "Brit, what are you doing?"

The blonde didn't answer. She just dropped Santana's hand and hopped over a small barrier and slipped through a hole in the fence. Santana couldn't let Brittany go in alone so she followed. The blonde hadn't stopped walking and opened the side door of the school, stepping inside.

When Santana finally caught up the smell of fresh paint and construction grade adhesives filled her nose and started to immediately give her a headache. She slowly walked behind Brittany and found that this hallway was back to normal, exactly like it looked before.

Brittany's eyes didn't stop roaming but she reached behind her and blindly grabbed for Santana's hand. When she found it, she slid her fingers between Santana's and held on tight.

"B, are you sure this is a good idea?" Santana asked, pulled Brittany to a stop.

The dancer nodded, "Yeah. I was watching Fear Factor last night while you were asleep and some girl said that she needed to face her fears so she wouldn't be scared anymore." She turned around to face Santana. The mixture of sadness, terror, and a longing swirled in her blue eyes, "I don't wanna be scared anymore."

Santana nodded. She didn't want Brittany to be scared anymore either. However she wasn't sure this was a proper way to go about it. But the longer she held Brittany's eyes the more willing she was to go along with it. Finally she let out, "Okay, but if you start to get really scared we can leave okay?"

Without an answer, Brittany turned around and pulled Santana toward the athletic wing of the school.

Santana's heart started to wildly riot in her chest. Her eyes darted from the ceiling to the walls, looking for cracks and listening for the exposition of an explosion.

What she hadn't told Brittany was that bits and piece of what happened had started coming back to Santana. Usually after her pre-Brittany talks with the psychologist. Somehow the short information sessions had turned into Santana's very own hour-long therapy appointment. She'd been pushing her feelings down so hard so that she could help Brittany that she didn't notice how huge they'd started to build up.

Brittany. She had to think about Brittany. If her best friend needed this then she'd do it. She clenched her jaw and allowed Brittany to pull her through the school that was in various stages of reconstruction.

Santana was trying to concentration on being somewhere else so hard that she ran into the back of Brittany when the blonde stopped. She peered over Brittany's shoulder and saw why she had stopped. Coach Sylvester's office door was ajar. They could see just by the sliver of the interior that the office had been fixed and made to look exactly like it had been before. All the trophies were back in the cases and all of the little trinkets on the desk were in place.

Santana saw Brittany's shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath before she took a step forward. Santana followed after a gently tug. Brittany slowly pushed the door open and looked inside. Her eyes fixed on the chair that was sitting behind the desk. She knew it wasn't the same chair that had been there when it happened or it would have been bloodstained. Brittany gulped and walked over to the chair, letting go of Santana's hand. She ran her finger over the arms of the chair remembering exactly how Santana looked, sitting in that chair struggling for breath and bruised all over.

Santana wasn't really having a problem in this particular room. She could see the door of the room what would give her the most trouble. The door of the Cheerio work-out room was repainted and repaired, but behind it Santana knew it was where she was almost killed. Her legs felt wobbly so she leaned back against the wall and slid down.

Brittany noticed that Santana was now on the floor and immediately knelt next to her. She saw the silent tears making their way down Santana's face and started crying as well.

"I'm sorry," Brittany rested her forehead against the side of Santana's head, "We shouldn't have come in here."

Santana shook her head, "It's okay. I mean, if it helps you then that's what counts."

Brittany sat against the wall and looked around the room. The wall between the office and music room had been repaired, but in her mind she could still see the gaping hole where Coach Sylvester had pulled her through to keep her from being crushed.

Then her eyes returned to the chair. The chair where she'd found Santana surely dying and semi-conscious. She felt Santana wrap her fingers around her upper arm and lean into her. Brittany was starting to think that this was a bad idea after all.

"What are you doing in here?" a horribly familiar voice asked.

Both girls look up to see Coach Sylvester standing in the doorway. Instead of finding an angry glare they found what seemed to be a sympathetic gaze…or as sympathetic as Coach Sylvester got.

"I-I thought that…" Brittany trailed off because Santana hadn't said anything yet.

Coach Sylvester put up her hand. She gestured to the two chairs in front of her desk, and made her way to her chair. She hesitated slightly like she wanted to sit in it, but she walked behind it to the window.

Brittany and Santana silently moved to the chairs that she indicated and leaned toward each other, their hands linked together.

"How are you two holding up?" she asked, not looking at them.

Brittany looked at Santana who swallowed, "We're…getting better."

With her hands behind her back, Sue nodded, "Good." She opened the window and picked up her ever-handy bullhorn. She yelled at a construction worker, "I'm not paying you to eat lunch!"

The worker stood up and put his hands over his ears. It seemed the bullhorn was excessive seeing as how he was seated five feet from the window. But he went back to work and that was what mattered. Sue replaced the bullhorn and closed the window.

"Will you two be able to come back into the school next week?" she asked.

"Next week?" Santana asked, weakly.

Coach Sylvester turned to the girls and nodded, "For once this construction crew is ahead of schedule." She walked back behind her chair and started to put her hands on it. She paused before touching it and placed her hands in her pockets, "I like to think it's my constant motivation and the readily available amphetamines I put on their snack table." She paused, "Side note, I opened up Lima's first narcotic rehab center across town. Can you believe it's already full?" She chuckled at her own genius, "Anywho," she put on a serious, concerned face and looked over the two Cheerios, "If you two need…anything next week…you have a permanent hall pass if you need to come see me or go to the glee room," she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes, "and sing about…feelings," she said the last word like it put a bad taste in her mouth.

"Thanks Coach," Brittany said for both of them.

Coach Sylvester just nodded powerfully, "I expect you both to be at practice after school today. Nationals is in two months and I need my captains focused." With that she walked out.

"Wow," Santana breathed and wiped her face free of tears after their coach was gone.

Brittany just nodded. She leaned over and kissed Santana's cheek, "Are you okay?"

The brunette nodded slowly, "I'll be okay."

They sat in the office a little longer before leaving to go to class. Santana carefully avoided walking past the workout room, taking a less direct route back to their class.

_R :What are you wearing?_

Quinn frowned at the text she just received. That was a weird question for Rachel to ask. Especially since they just saw each other an hour ago. She kicked her feet as she sat next to the sink in the boy's bathroom. She was sick of the idiotic comments in her History class (What year was the Battle of 1812 again?) and she wasn't really sure where Brittany and Santana were off to. Plus there were at least five Cheerios in the girl's bathroom at all times, fixing their hair or make-up, just being vain in general.

Quinn found solace in the boy's restroom because until Wednesday there would be no boys at this school other than the teachers who had their own bathroom.

_Q: Uniform. You just saw me dork._

Her phone vibrating was almost immediate. She closed the book she had been reading and set it aside. Apparently Rachel had some free time.

_R: I'm trying something new. Help me out here ;)_

"Oooohh," Quinn said at her phone in understanding. As she was tapping out a response another text sounded.

_R: Since I can't touch you in real life yet, I thought I'd let you know what I'd do if I could…what I think about at night._

Quinn's breath became ragged with the few words that were on the screen. She looked around the room, like someone had appeared. She walked to the single stall in the room and locked herself in sitting on the tank of the brand new toilet. She closed the lid and rest her feet on top of it, wondering how far this was going to go. If Rachel was going to keep sending texts like that then she wouldn't notice even if someone else walked in.

Quinn realized she hadn't yet replied when her phone buzzed again.

_R: Too much? I just thought that this could help…maybe. __We don't want to if you don't want to._

_Q: No I want to. Just had to get to somewhere more private._

_R: Good :D _

_R: So are you sitting or standing?_

The blonde answered back, hoping that Rachel wouldn't ask her where she was. There was nothing more unsexy than a boy's bathroom.

_Q: Sitting. _

Waiting for Rachel's reply was killing her. This would be so much better if Rachel was actually there, except for the fact that Quinn probably wouldn't be able to touch her.

_R.: I've always wanted to sit on your lap, facing you, my legs wrapped around you. I want to kiss you deeply, running my hands through your gorgeous hair while you stroked my legs right under the bottom of my skirt._

Quinn's mouth dropped open. Best. Text. Ever. Quinn felt a distinct wetness pool between her legs. She squeezed them together and closed her eyes, imaging that Rachel was actually there. What her kiss would feel and taste like. What the tan skin would feel like under her fingertips.

_R: Anything you'd want to do in that situation?_

The Cheerio's hands were shaking as she replied.

_Q: Sometimes I wonder what your neck would taste like. I want to know what it would feel like to kiss your pulse and feel your heart beating for me. _

_R: It's beating for you now. _

She licked her lips, wishing that Rachel was here now. Maybe she wouldn't be able to do all those things, but kissing Rachel seemed like a definite possibility now. At the very least a hug was in order. A very long one.

Quinn wasn't really sure where to go from there. Sure she'd thought about these things before, but she was always alone and it was dark and she was in her bed. She wasn't sure how to write her explicit thoughts or sure if she even wanted to tell Rachel about all the things she'd thought about doing to her. She didn't want to freak Rachel out. It's not that they were all that kinky, she just didn't want Rachel to think that was all she thought about.

Luckily Rachel sent another text.

_R: Do you think I'm sexy Quinn?_

Quinn wondered what part of the game this was, but she answered honestly.

_Q: Yes. All the time._

_R: Can you come over tonight? _

The blonde knew where this was going. She couldn't help her palms from sweating. She really, really wanted to do all these things and more with Rachel. She just didn't want to freak out again.

_R: I promise not to pressure you into anything. I just want to try something._

Quinn knew that Rachel really wouldn't pressure her into anything and for that she was grateful. She wanted to be able to physically show Rachel how she felt. Quinn just needed to get over her barriers and do it.

_Q: I'll be there right after school._


	13. Chapter 13

Quinn shuffled her feet up to the front door of the Berry house. She was getting more nervous with every step. So much so that when she got to the front door she wasn't sure if she could knock. She stared at an eye level chip in the white paint of the front door.

"Are you going to knock?" a playful voice said from the window next to the door.

Quinn jumped and her hand went to her chest where her heart was now beating wildly. Rachel smiled from the open window, just watching Quinn. "Jesus Christ Rachel."

Rachel reached out the window and picked up the cross charm on Quinn's necklace, "Is that how a good Christian girl should talk?"

"I'm converting," Quinn huffed and opened the front door, walking into the house. Rachel met her in the foyer and took her hand.

"Converting to what?" Rachel asked, leading Quinn to her bedroom.

Quinn surveyed what Rachel was wearing. It was the usual Rachel attire. Oversized sweater, undersized skirt. Her signature tights and penny loafers were absent suggesting that she'd been home a while. Quinn herself had changed at school after Cheerio practice into a white sundress and white flowery flats. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, especially herself, but she was still trying to impress Rachel and if they were really going to go through with that their texts said, she needed something easier to get off than her uniform.

"I don't know yet," Quinn shrugged. When they got to Rachel's room, Rachel let go of her hand. She continued walking and sat on the bed. She loved the adorable, ambitious, and slightly naïve room that Rachel lived in.

Rachel closed the door and leaned back on it, eyeing Quinn. She tilted her head slightly.

"What are you looking at?" Quinn asked with a suddenly hoarse voice. She was starting to remember why she was here. Rachel wanted to try something, but not pressure her into anything which usually means physical contact.

Rachel blushed and looked down at the ground, "I was just," she cleared her throat, "Thinking about the texts you sent me today."

"I've been thinking about them a lot too," Quinn confessed, folding her hands in her lap. She sat completely straight on the bed.

Rachel chuckled, "You can relax Quinn. Take your shoes off and let you hair down or whatever you do to get comfortable. I'm not going to attack you."

The blonde sighed, "I know. I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing," Rachel walked across the room and picked up the remote off the top of her television. She crawled onto the bed behind Quinn and laid down, curling on her side. She flipped on the TV and turned it to her favorite channel. The Classic Movie Channel.

Quinn kicked off her shoes and pulled her hair down. Then she readjusted her dress before lying down next to Rachel. Her eyes stayed on Rachel who was watching the black and white movie playing past the foot of the bed.

She loved the away Rachel would mouth the words that she knew and how she would brush the bangs out of her eyes with the backs of her fingers. Quinn let out a content sigh that caused Rachel to finally look at her. She let out a sweet smile and took Quinn's hand in her own, their fingers threading together.

Then Rachel brought Quinn's hand down to her lips and kissed each individual knuckle before turning back to the movie. Quinn melted into a puddle on the bed. She gently squeezed Rachel's hand in a silent attempt to get the brunette's attention.

It worked and Rachel muted the TV, rolling onto her side. She propped her head up and ran her thumb across the back of Quinn's hand, "No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed…and often, and by someone who knows how." Rachel looked thoroughly amused with herself.

"What's that from?" Quinn asked, knowing that Rachel had to be quoting something. At least she hoped that she was.

"Gone With the Wind. 1939," Rachel smiled softly and let go of Quinn's hand and move it into the blonde hair framing her face. She saw Quinn tense up and close her eyes, but she continued to slowly run her fingers through the golden locks. It took a few minutes, but Quinn finally let herself relax under the touch. Her eyes found their way back to Rachel's.

Rachel whispered as she subtly scooted closer to Quinn. "It cannot have escaped your notice that for some time past the friendship I have felt for you has ripened into a deeper feeling. A feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred," Quinn closed her eyes, absorbing the feeling of Rachel's fingers in her hair. Rachel leaned forward and chastely pressed her lips to Quinn's forehead before drawing back, continuing to whisper, "Dare I name it? Can it be love?"

Rachel waited patiently for Quinn's reaction to the simple kiss. Then the blonde opened her eyes, she let out a thoughtful sigh. "You're really the best girlfriend of all time."

Rachel chuckled. She didn't point out Quinn's first use of the 'g' word. She lightly trailed her finger from Quinn's hair, down her cheek and along her jaw. She wished her lips were blazing this trail, but she's settle for this

The hazel eyes grew smaller behind narrowed, thoughtful eyelids, "What happens if I start kissing you and I can't stop?"

"Who says I'd want you to stop?" Rachel asked breathlessly.

"No, Rachel I mean…" Quinn really didn't want to have to say it, "What if- What if I can't get enough? What if I completely lose control and I need…all of you."

"I think considering how long it's taken you to get to kissing," Rachel let out a small smirk, "We don't have to worry about all of me, but when we get there…" She paused, biting her lip, "You'll have all of me."

Quinn's only movement was a blink. Then she swallowed before asking, "Really?"

Rachel nodded slowly.

"I thought you were going to wait for someone you loved," Quinn said because she couldn't ask what she really wanted to.

The shorter girl leaned forward, her face dangerously close to Quinn's. She could feel Quinn's breath caressing her lips. "I am." She stopped where she was, waiting for Quinn to close the gap between them.

Quinn brought a shaking hand up to Rachel's cheek as tears formed in her eyes. The look in Rachel's eyes was shaking her down to her core. A look of pure caring. A deeper feeling. . A feeling more beautiful, more pure, more sacred than anything Quinn had seen. Could it be love?

Quinn moved her head up, at a painfully low pace, but the second her lips touched Rachel's they both sank into the kiss. Rachel started to pull away, not wanting this to be too much for Quinn, but the blonde cradled the back of Rachel's head, pulling her back down.

Santana was a little creeped out because the only noise in the hallway was her own footfalls. She'd snuck back into the school after dropping Brittany off at her house. She couldn't get the image of the work-out room door out of her brain. It stayed with her all day, haunting her from the back of her mind. That's why she decided that she needed to go back. Face her fears and all that jazz.

As she crept up to the door, she could feel her muscles start to shake. She pushed open the door and stepped inside. The whole room was back in order, minus the treadmill she had been using the day of the explosion.

_She turned up the speed on the treadmill. Coach was really getting on them about their weight. Not that Santana really had any weight to spare, but she wanted to show the Coach that she was trying. She was willing to suffer to keep her position as captain. _

_Then it happened. She heard the explosion before any other effects made their way to her. It felt like she was being pelted with hug rocks on one side of her body. So hard that she was airborne, tossed across the room like a rag doll. The loud cracking of her ribs driving into a rack of free weights was covered up by the ceiling falling down on the place where she had just been standing. _

_Her vision became blurry as she struggled to get up. At first she didn't feel anything, but once the pain hit her, she sank to her knees, against the wall screaming in agony._

Santana protectively wrapped her arm around her stomach and stepped into the room. Her scar was now burning, singeing the skin all around it. She kept close to the wall as she walked around the room, not going anywhere near where the treadmill used to be. The rack to free weights that almost killed her was still sitting in the corner. She guessed that she was lucky that she wasn't hurt more. She was also lucky to have such a brave best friend.

Santana let out a sigh. This room wasn't scary to her anymore. Not knowing what was in it scared her. Sure she probably wouldn't want to be alone in it any time soon, but she wouldn't avoid walking past it anymore. The pain she endured in that room was purely physical. Physical pain she could deal with. She was sure that if she were dealing with the psychological pain that Brittany was enduring she would have broken a long time ago.

Quinn was right. As soon as she started kissing Rachel, she couldn't get enough. She had been just kissing Rachel for over half an hour. The brunette didn't seem to be complaining. When Quinn would pull away, Rachel would smile sweetly at her before pulling Quinn back in.

The blonde was feeling more adventurous, but had yet to move her hands from Rachel's face and neck area. They actually spent most of their time, tangled in Rachel's hair, but she was starting to wonder where else she could touch and what it would feel like.

Rachel was surprised when Quinn's hand disappeared from her hair and even more surprised when it landed on her hip. She let out a gentle moan as the hand squeezed her hip.

The sound of Rachel's moan made fire blaze through her entire body. She needed to hear it again. She carefully pushed up the sweater Rachel was wearing exposing a tiny sliver of skin above Rachel's skirt. She ran her thumb across the newly exposed skin and Rachel arched into her touch and moaned into her mouth.

"That is now my favorite sound in the whole world," Quinn smiled again Rachel's mouth and her palm pressed against Rachel's stomach. Her other hand joined it and she ran both of her hands onto Rachel's back, pulling her body down flush against her own.

Rachel pulled her lips away from Quinn's long enough to pant in Quinn's ear, "This is better than I imagined."

Quinn rolled them over so that she was on top of Rachel. She dipped her head back down, Rachel expecting the lips to meet again until she felt Quinn's breath on her neck. She licked her lips and let out a small squeak when the blonde moved her hand up Rachel's side, grazing the bottom of her bra.

Finally Quinn pressed her lips to Rachel's neck. She nipped at Rachel's jaw and moved back down her neck. "You're so sexy." She could feel Rachel's pulse on her lips, beating hard and fast. Beating for her. She smiled and resumed kissing down Rachel's neck, and back up the other side. Then she pulled away, just looking down at the flushed, breathless girl under her. "I was right."

"About what?" Rachel asked, pushing Quinn's hair out of her face.

"I can't get enough of you," she smiled.

Rachel pulled Quinn down for a small kiss before letting the blonde just gaze at her.

"Thank you for waiting for me," Quinn buried her face into Rachel's neck and closed her eyes.

"Thank you for opening up for me," Rachel answered kissing the top of Quinn's head, "You're a beautiful person Quinn. Inside and out."

As Santana walked out of the school she found Brittany sitting on the front steps of the school. The blonde looked up when she heard the door open. When Santana neared she stood up, and wrapped her arms around Santana.

"Are you okay?" Santana whispered.

Brittany nodded against her shoulder, "I came to check on you."

Santana smiled and kissed the side of her head, "I'm fine. I'm just trying to be as brave as you."

The blonde giggled, "You're braver than me."

"Nah," Santana pulled back and placed a sweet peck on Brittany's lips. She looked up at the sky and felt the sun on her face. Then she turned to Brittany who was smiling widely at her, her blue eyes twinkling.

"We're gonna be okay huh?" Santana asked with a playful nudge to Brittany's shoulder.

"Of course," Brittany grinned, "We're awesome."

"And brave."

"And totally hot."

Santana laughed and slid her hands around Brittany's waist, "And totally in love."

The blonde locked her arms around Santana's neck, placing a long, lingering kiss on Santana's lips, "Totally."

* * *

The End.


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